Israeli researchers have discovered that wild bats possess high cognitive abilities once thought to be unique to humans, Tel Aviv University (TAU) said in a statement on Monday.

The study, published in Current Biology, involved tracking the free-ranging Egyptian fruit bat colony in TAU's zoology garden as they navigated and foraged.

Focusing on traits such as episodic memory, mental time travel, planning and delayed gratification, the team found that the bats are able to plan and use past experiences, showing evidence of mental time travel and episodic memory.

These cognitive abilities, previously considered exclusive to humans, entail recalling personal experiences and planning ahead.

To investigate if bats form a mental time map, the researchers prevented them from leaving the colony for varying periods.

It was found that after a week, experienced bats avoided trees that had stopped bearing fruit, indicating they could estimate the time elapsed since their last visit and remember which trees had short fruit-bearing periods.

Young, inexperienced bats could not do this, suggesting the skill is learned.

To determine if bats exhibit future-oriented behaviors and planning, the researchers observed each bat's route to the first tree of the evening.

Typically, the bats flew directly to a specific tree they knew, sometimes 20 or 30 minutes away. When the tree was farther away, they flew faster, indicating they planned their route.

They also passed by other trees, even those with good sources visited recently, demonstrating delayed gratification.

Furthermore, the first bats to leave the colony chose trees with high-sugar fruits, while later bats sought protein-rich fruits, indicating that bats know not only where they are flying but also what kind of nourishment they seek.

The researchers concluded that fruit bats are capable of quite a complex decision-making process involving the three questions of where, when and what.