tinted in Great Britain SOME ADVANCED FLIGHT MANOEUVRES OF BATS

Two manoeuvres in bats are described: rolls through 1800, in Nyctalus noctula, and a series of sideslips in Otomops martiensseni. These manoeuvres cause a rapid loss of height. They are initiated by pronation of one wing and supination of the other. After the roll, when the bat is in an upside down...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: M. Norberg
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 1975
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.576.3420
http://jeb.biologists.org/content/64/2/489.full.pdf
Description
Summary:Two manoeuvres in bats are described: rolls through 1800, in Nyctalus noctula, and a series of sideslips in Otomops martiensseni. These manoeuvres cause a rapid loss of height. They are initiated by pronation of one wing and supination of the other. After the roll, when the bat is in an upside down position, the lift force of the wings is directed downwards, causing a tight turn downwards (apparently for insect catching). During sideslip the body drag of the bat is increased. This reduces the total lift/drag ratio, thus steepening the equilibrium gliding angle.