They use it for finding food and locating their babies. For insect and fish eaters, the big ears help with echolocation. Usually, echoes are received by funnel-shaped ears that face forward. The sense of smell is well developed in most bats. It is used to find and identify certain foods and to recognize roost mates and young.
Fruit eating bats can find their food by the smell of the ripening fruit.
Nectar seeking bats gather pollen on their snout, and by going from flower to flower help create new plants. For example, flying fox bats have very good eyesight and they use their eyes along with their excellent sense of smell to help find food in the dark. Bats' eyes are better at seeing in the dark. Most see objects only in black and white, but color vision is known to exist in some old world fruit bats. With their strong claws, bats are able to hang upside down in their roosts.