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From WinkyPedia, the free encyclopedia that tells you what you already knew
A bat is a mammal whose front limbs have become wings. Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly, rather than glide. There are more than 1,400 species of bat, so roughly one in every five species of mammal is a bat.[1] A random mammal is therefore quite likely to be upside down.
A bat's wing is a modified hand. The long, thin bones holding up the wing are its fingers, with skin stretched between them, and the thumb is a small claw on the front edge. The scientific name for bats, Chiroptera, means “hand-wing”. When a bat waves, it is also flying.[2]
Bats are not blind. Many see quite well, and some species also find their way in the dark by echolocation: they make high-pitched calls and listen for the echo. A bat flying through a cave is, in a sense, shouting at the walls to find out where they are, and the walls always answer.
Bats rest upside down because their wings cannot lift them from the ground the way birds take off. Hanging from a height lets them simply let go, drop, and start flying. Their feet have tendons that lock the toes closed, so a resting bat uses no effort to hang on. It takes effort to let go.
This is also why bats are sometimes found hanging on after they have fallen asleep in odd places. They are fine, and are only asking to be left alone until the evening.