Birds are terrific flyers, but bats are more like aerial acrobats. They must be able to flit and twist and dive to catch quick little insects. God created bats with the right anatomy for that kind of flight. If a bird’s wings are like arms, think of a bat’s wings as hands. In fact, the big science word for bats is Chiroptera. It means, “hand wing.” Bats use their wings kind of like you use your hands and fingers.

But before a bat can catch a bug, it needs to find it. To explain that, we need another big word—echolocation. You know sound travels in waves. You know that sound waves bounce off objects. The shape, size, and softness of an object change the returning sound waves.

A bat sends out sound waves. The waves bounce off a bug. Big, sensitive ears collect that echo. A bat’s brain sorts out the returning sound waves. We are amazed at the way a bat can concentrate on the sound waves from one single insect. Imagine all the other bats and bugs fluttering around!

A single bug’s echo tells a bat the bug’s location. It also tells its size, speed, and direction of flight. We don’t have to remind you how fast bugs fly or how quickly they change directions! Only God could give His creatures an ability like echolocation. Only God could give scientists and engineers minds that can understand and mimic His creatures.

Fun facts about bats:

• Bats are not blind. They see fine during the day.

• Bat wings contain strands of muscle that help control and shape their surface.

• Some bats have a flap called a “nose leaf.” They use it to aim the sound waves they send out.

• Bat ears have flaps and ridges to help filter and direct sound waves down to their eardrums.

• Bat echolocation signals are so high-pitched that humans can’t hear most of them.

• Bat signals reach 130 decibels—as loud as a jet taking off. Their ears are able to filter out their own loud outgoing signals so that they don’t deafen themselves and so that they can hear the returning sound waves.