Mammals also fly

VIKAS S. KHATRI

THE bat is the only mammal capable of sustained flight. Bats are divided into two sub-orders - larger bats or megabats and smaller bats or microbats - and 17 families. One of these families includes all megabats (more than 150 species), the other 16 families are of microbats. In all, 850 to 900 species of bats exist, far more than in any other mammalian order except the order of rodents; and bats probably exceed even rodents in total abundance. Zambia issued a set of stamps featuring four different species of bats.

Common Slit-Faced Bat, also called Hollow-faced Bat, any of about 13 species of tropical bats forming the genus Nycteris and the family Nycteridae is found in Africa and in the Malaysian and Indonesian regions.

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