Bats are not always so clever. The BA flight from Barbados to London has been scheduled to depart at dusk for many years. The asphalt runway, warmed by the sun for many hours, attracts huge clouds of insects at dusk, which in turn attract cauldrons of bats to feast on them.
The speed and manoeuvrability of bats is no match for 300 tons of metal accelerating to 190mph.
What sounded and felt like machine gun fire hitting the fuselage signalled the demise of many bats on each takeoff. No doubt many more ended up being gobbled and minced by the big fan engines. In spite of us having a full set of very bright lights on and making a lot of noise, they never seemed to learn to keep out of our way.
Dave