Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

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Discs On Their Wings

The tiny disc-winged bats found in the tropical rain forests of Central and South America roost in a ‘head up’ position rather than the usual upside-down pose adopted by other bats. They can do this because they have a suction cup on each foot and on each thumb. Disc-winged bats select the tube-like unopened leaves of wild banana plants and crawl inside. They hold onto the leaf's smooth surface with their suction cups. But since the leaves unfurl in a few days, leaving them unprotected, the entire roost consisting of around 6-7 bats moves to a new leaf.
Even one of the discs is strong enough to support the bat's entire weight.

If a disc-winged bat is caught and put in a cage and there is nothing for its suction cups to cling to, it still prefers to hang right side up by using its thumb-claws.
The bats measure just 4 cm in length and weigh 4-5 gm. They have a wingspan of about 22 cm. They are reddish brown or pale brown in colour. They feed exclusively on insects.

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Last updated on :7/14/2006