Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) can be described as a group of wireless mobile nodes that form a temporary dynamic and independent infrastructure network or a central administration facility. High energy consumption is one of the main problems associated with the MANET technology. The wireless mobile nodes used in this process rely on batteries because the network does not have a steady power supply. Thus, the rapid battery drain reduces the lifespan of the network. In this paper, a new Bat Optimized Link State Routing (BOLSR) protocol is proposed to improve the energy usage of the Optimized Link State Routing (OLSR) protocol in the MANET. The symmetry between OLSR of MANET and Bat Algorithm (BA) is that both of them use the same mechanism for finding the path via sending and receiving specific signals. This symmetry resulted in the BOLSR protocol that determines the optimized path from a source node to a destination node according to the energy dynamics of the nodes. The BOLSR protocol is implemented in a MANET simulation by using MATLAB toolbox. Different scenarios are tested to compare the BOLSR protocol with the Cellular Automata African Buffalo Optimization (CAABO), Energy-Based OLSR (EBOLSR), and the standard OLSR. The performance metric consists of routing overhead ratios, energy consumption, and end-to-end delay which is applied to evaluate the performance of the routing protocols. The results of the tests reveal that the BOLSR protocol reduces the energy consumption and increases the lifespan of the network, compared with the CAABO, EBOLSR, and OLSR.