Brazilian free-tailed bat is the fastest flyer in the animal kingdom
Wednesday, November 9, 2016 - 06:32
in Biology & Nature
Up to now, the speed record for horizontal flight was held by birds from the swift family: the common swift, for example, can reach speeds of over 100 kilometres per hour. Together with colleagues from the USA, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell have now discovered a new front-runner among the acrobats of the air. However, the animal involved here is not a bird but a bat: the Brazilian free-tailed bat shoots through the night skies at over 160 kilometres per hour. Their aerodynamic body shape and longer than average wings compared to other bat species enable them to reach such vast speeds.