In Iraq, bats are known as Saḥayyir Al-Layl - “The one that stays up at night”. Long misunderstood and often viewed as ill-omened creatures that are the harbingers of bad luck. At dusk, when bats would appear in the sky, mothers would call their children inside, warning them that a bat might cling on to their face. Yet how much of this fear is rooted in reality? And where did the bats go?

Before their quiet disappearance, bats were a familiar part of Iraqi life. Their appearance at sunset signaled nightfall, a time to close doors and windows and a time for children to leave the playgrounds and return home. 

The city of Nasiriyah, like many Iraqi cities, saw bats quietly vanish. Despite the dramatic warnings mothers used to ward their kids inside, without causing anyone any harm, they left without clinging to anyone’s face or blinding any unsuspecting child.  

Bats were folded into childhood cautionary tales similar to the tales of Sab‘ Al-Subambaa or Sahhal Abu Al-Tabag, imaginary figures who are said to kidnap children at night. These figures never existed, except as a part of a parental strategy trying to keep their young ones safe. 

Muhammad Hameed, now in his fifties, lives in Nasiriyah, but he still remembers when a bat flew into one of their rooms when he was a kid. He and his siblings ran out in fear while their mother rushed to open the windows, waving a cloth to drive out an uninvited guest that had accidentally entered an Iraqi home. 

“Bats used to fill the skies of Nasiriyah at sunset,” Muhammad said, remembering the strange beauty of dusk coloured by fear and folklore. Mothers told those chilling stories as a way to call their children home. The stories of the only mammal that’s capable of flight—a bat that could latch onto your face and not let go unless met with a mirror framed in gold. What child dared to question their mother’s words? 

Echoing common belief, bats in Iraq have long carried an air of superstition. Over time, the word “bat” took on a darker connotation—it became a term used to describe criminals and people seen as sinister and shadowy. In Iraqi folklore and urban slang, a “human bat” came to symbolise someone feared and pursued by the police. 

The metaphor became real in 2018, when Basra police announced the death of a man known only as “The Bat”. Following hours of armed clashes, security forces confirmed that they had killed Hassan Srayfa, described as Basra’s most dangerous drug dealer. 

Disappearance

To this day, Muhammad still asks a question that lingers in the air just like the bats that once filled it. “Have bats become extinct?” He finds it strange that sunsets no longer bring bats to the skies of Nasiriyah. But to answer his question, bats have not become extinct. They’ve chosen to avoid Iraqi cities due to poor treatment, climate change and persistent urban noise pollution. 

Recent studies revealed behaviours in bats that resemble those of humans. Infant bats learn communication skills through humming sounds. They also share food locations within their groups and practice social distancing when one of them shows signs of illness. 

Bats navigate and find their targets using echolocation—sending out sound and decoding the echoes to map their surroundings. 

As a bat zeroes in on its prey, its sound frequency increases, surpassing 160 pulses per second. Through these echoes a bat can determine the size, shape, texture, distance, and direction of its target.  

To protect itself from the high-frequency sounds it produces, the bat contracts a muscle in its middle ear. This prevents it from going deaf due to its screeches. These calls range in intensity from around 60 decibels, the volume of a normal conversation, to 140 decibels in some rare cases, which is as loud as a fully operating aircraft carrier. 

This form of navigation is no longer practical for bats in Nasiriyah and Dhi Qar. Urban sprawl, rising temperatures, desertification, and prolonged drought have drastically transformed the environment. Pushed out by these harsh conditions, bats have retreated to open and abandoned spaces in search of a quieter ground.  

Noise 

Omar Al-Sheikhli, technical director of the Iraqi Green Climate Organisation, points to another factor driving bats out of Iraqi cities: noise pollution. The frequencies bats rely on to orient themselves and hunt are disrupted through the constant hum of urban life. 

Human-made sounds, such as traffic noise and industrial zones, can interfere with this ability, making it harder for bats to find their prey. 

Noise pollution can cause the bats to fly faster or avoid well-lit areas, reducing their hunting efficiency. These disruptions may lead to a decline in bat populations that feed on insects, which threatens the ecological balance, just as we’re seeing now in Dhi Qar and other regions of Iraq. 

Bats can adapt to low-noise environments. Their radar system works effectively within a range of 33 metres when noise pollution is at zero. But as noise increases, the bat’s radar performance drops. When noise pollution reaches 34 decibels, a bat’s ability to detect its prey drops to around 15 metres. 

Dhi Qar no longer offers the quietude bats need to survive. Mowaffaq Al-Taie, director of the Dhi Qar Environment Department, stated that sound pollution in the city consistently exceeds levels tolerable to bats. He shared the following decibel ranges with Jummar:  

• 40–50 decibels near hospitals and rest areas (noise is higher during the day) 

• 50–60 decibels in residential areas 

• 65–70 decibels in public spaces and industrial zones 

These numbers paint a picture of a city too loud for creatures that rely entirely on sound to see the world. 

On the other hand, the bats’ migration has disrupted the city’s ecological balance. Aref Shamkhi, head of the Marshes Division in Dhi Qar’s Environment Department, said that “The decline or disappearance of bats directly affects environmental balance and contributes to an increase in insects such as mosquitoes, beetles, and flying pests.”  

Shamkhi believes that the presence of bats is “a strong indicator of environmental quality”, as bats are highly sensitive to all forms of pollution. 

Scientists have identified over 1,200 species of bats. Only three are so-called vampire bats, and even those mainly feed on other animals, not humans. Researchers have found that these so-called scary bats produce a chemical called desmoteplase, which helps reduce blood clots and is used in stroke treatment. 

Bats provide enormous economic value in the United States, saving an estimated 3.7 billion US dollars annually in pest control costs. The large fruit bat also plays an active role in pollinating plants. 

According to Omar Al-Sheikhli, a teacher at the College of Science at the University of Baghdad, there are 20 species of bats in Iraq. These bats feed on insects and rodents. It’s evident that recognising the environmental value of bats could save considerable resources spent on annual rodent control. 

In Dhi Qar, for example, a quick internet search for “Dhi Qar Health Department rodent control campaigns” shows dozens of launched efforts. A few bats could have handled that if only they’d been left in peace. Given the chance, a single little brown bat can eat up to 1,000 insects per hour; in colonies, they could devour tonnes of moths and other pests daily.