Bats are nimble aerialists, neatly flipping over to roost in caves, hollow trees and other sheltered spots. But the mechanics of this feat have been a mystery, as bats cannot hover upside down. How, then, do they manage to land head-under-heels without falling toward the ground? In this issue of PLOS Biology, Breuer and colleagues provide an answer as elegant as the acrobatic maneuvers of bats: to flip their bodies while landing, bats simply retract one wing and extend the other.
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