hey little bat!

Bats are the only true flying mammals. They belong to the order Chiroptera (coming from the Greek words for "hand" and "wing"). They are further divided into 2 suborders: Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera (microbats). Bats account for 20% of all of the world's mammals. They are present on every continent except Antarctica. They are integral in seed dispersal and the pollination of certain flowers, and they help keep the insect/pest populations down. Being a mammal, the skeletal structure of a bat's wing is more like a human arm than a bird's wing. In fact, a bat's wing very closely resembles a human arm - the difference is in the proportions. (Imagine your arm with extremely elongated fingers - link to bat wing anatomy) . Monteverde Bat Jungle Also, the difference between bat and bird flight is that bats do not flap their entire forelimbs like birds, but rather flap only their spread-out "fingers". bat skeleton, Monteverde Bat J...

Again, these were taken with my point-and-shoot camera set to HI ISO. They're not spectacular, but I was happy to capture at least something without using a flash, which I don't think you should do at a zoo, especially for the nocturnal animals. Anyway, this is a great exhibit. You can really observe a lot of interesting bat behavior. Fruit bats , also known as flying foxes or megabats, have sweet faces and rely on sight and smell, not echolocation for navigation and foraging (the exception being the Egyptian Fruit Bat). Some eat fruit, aiding in seed dispersal; others drink nectar, actually pollinating the plants. Although not all megabats are necessarily large (the smallest is only 2-3 inches), the largest of the flying foxes reaches a wingspan of 6 feet! The bats at the Houston Zoo (shown above) are Straw-Colored Fruit Bats (Eidolon helvum). Houston Zoo Fruit Bat video BCI's Flying Foxes