Bats, belonging to the order Chiroptera, have never been successfully domesticated by humans. This lack of domestication is due to a combination of deeply ingrained biological, reproductive, and behavioral traits that fundamentally prevent the long-term process of selective breeding.
Defining True Domestication
Domestication is a multi-generational evolutionary process where humans intentionally intervene in the breeding of a species to select for traits beneficial to human needs. Known as artificial selection, this process results in measurable genetic, physiological, and behavioral changes that distinguish the domesticated animal from its wild ancestor. It fundamentally alters the species’ gene pool over numerous generations.
The key to domestication is controlled reproduction, where humans choose which individuals mate to enhance desired characteristics such as docility, rapid growth, or increased yield. This process is far more involved than simple taming, which only habituates an individual wild animal to human presence without changing its core genetics. True domestication requires a population to adapt to the human-controlled environment, a change that becomes heritable.
Biological Barriers to Domestication
One of the most significant biological hurdles for bat domestication is their slow reproductive cycle, which makes the multi-generational selective breeding process highly inefficient. Unlike animals with large, frequent litters, most bat species are characterized by a “slow” life history, often giving birth to only a single pup per year. This low reproductive rate drastically slows the speed at which humans can select for favorable traits and fix them within the population’s genetics.
The specialized and diverse dietary requirements of bats also present a major obstacle to large-scale, economical maintenance. While some bats are frugivorous, insectivorous species require a continuous supply of live prey, such as crickets or mealworms, which must be “gut-loaded” with calcium to provide adequate nutrition. Sanguivorous (blood-feeding) bats and nectarivorous bats have even more complex, difficult-to-replicate diets, making the sustained feeding of a large breeding colony practically unfeasible outside of specialized zoological settings.
Furthermore, the bat’s primary mode of locomotion—sustained flight—is a behavioral trait that actively works against the control required for selective breeding. The close management and confinement necessary to ensure only specific individuals reproduce is difficult to maintain with a species capable of easily escaping any enclosure. Unlike many domesticated animals, the bat’s ability to fly makes controlling the breeding population nearly impossible.
Why Bats Are Not Suitable as Pets
Even if biological domestication were possible, the practical dangers of human interaction with wild bats make them unsuitable as companion animals. Bats are reservoirs for a wide array of zoonotic pathogens, which are diseases that can jump from animals to humans. The most prominent concern is rabies, a fatal viral infection transmitted through a bite or scratch, and bats are the leading cause of human rabies deaths in the United States.
Other serious health risks are associated with exposure to bat guano, or droppings, which can harbor the fungus that causes histoplasmosis, a respiratory infection. Bats are also known to carry other emerging viruses, including various coronaviruses like those related to SARS and MERS, as well as the Nipah and Hendra viruses, which have high case fatality rates in humans.
Beyond the public health risk, most bat species are protected by local and international wildlife laws, making it illegal to keep them without specialized permits. Attempting to keep a wild bat requires stringent quarantine and biosafety conditions typically only met by professional research facilities or accredited zoos, placing them far outside the realm of common pet ownership.