Les Hall has lived among bats and immersing himself in finding out everything he could about them has taken him into some very odd places.

Broadcast date: Thursday 15 November 2012

There are almost 1000 species of bats on earth.

They range from the bumblebee bat from Thailand at 1.5 grams, to the large flying foxes of Australia with wingspans of longer than 1.5 metres.

Bat biologist Les Hall devloped his love of birds from his father, and a boss at the CSIRO later introduced him to the wonder of bats.

Les says he's particularly fond of the horseshoe bat - one of the first he identified.

He's co-authored a book with his long-time colleague Dr Greg Richards: The Natural History of Australian Bats: Working the Night Shift published CSIRO Publishing.

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