Bats Beat Birds

The sophisticated analysis looked at bats in a wind tunnel to uncover the key differences between how mammals and birds stay aloft.

Bats turn out to have a high degree of control over the ever-changing shape of their wings, said study leader Anders Hedenström, an ecologist at Sweden's Lund University.

The animals can therefore generate lift as their wings move both up and down—a big advantage when hovering.

The bats' trick resembles the way each rotor on a helicopter generates lift whether it's moving forward or backward, Hedenström pointed out.

By contrast, he said, birds' wings are optimally designed to generate lift on their downstroke, and they can "feather" their wings—spreading their feathers like the slats of Venetian blinds—to reduce drag on the upstroke.

Hedenström's findings, which appear in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science, agree with results that Brown University's Sharon Swartz and Kenny Breuer published in January.

"Aerodynamic forces generated by bat wings during flight are far more complicated than those of birds," said Swartz, an evolutionary biologist.

Birds' wings operate almost as if they were airplane wings on hinges. By comparison, "bat wings are more flexible," she said. "The materials—the skin and bone—are more stretchy. The bones actually bend when the bat is flying.

"At slower speeds, flexible wings seem to have advantages."

Bats, birds, and pterosaurs all had radically different flight techniques. Amazing, ain't it? That is to do the same thing with the same basic body plan they all come up with different answers based on the same concept. Nature's pretty cool.