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IMAGE: The European bulldog bat not only hunts for insects near the ground, but sometimes also climbs to high altitudes.
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Credit: Adria Baucells
Bats are the only mammals that can actively fly. Some species travel over one hundred kilometres on their nocturnal excursions in search of food. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Radolfzell have now discovered that European free-tailed bats use uplifting winds for their ascents - a behaviour that was previously known only from birds. To do this, they tracked the bats using mini GPS loggers and then linked the flight data to weather data. The animals can thus gain altitude of well over 1,000 metres without expending much energy. The results also show that the bats reach flight speeds of up to 135 kilometres per hour.