Credit: Teague O Mara
Although scientists knew that some bats could reach heights of over 1,600 meters (or approximately one mile) above the ground during flight, they didn t understand how they managed to do it without the benefit of thermals that aren t typically available to them during their nighttime forays. Now, researchers reporting in the journal
Current Biology on February 4th have uncovered the bats secret to high-flying.
It turns out that the European free-tailed bats they studied powerful fliers that the researchers documented sometimes reaching speeds of up to 135 kilometers (84 miles) per hour in self-powered flight do depend on orographic uplift that happens when air is pushed up over rising terrain to help them fly high, just as birds do during the day. But, because that s harder to find during the cooler night, they have to rely on just the right sort of areas to reach those high altitudes.