Horseshoe bats | Rhinolophidae

Hoefijzerneuzen | Murciélagos de herradura

Bats that utter their call not through the mouth but through the nostrils and aim it with a noseleaf in three parts: a horseshoe-shaped fold around the nostrils, an upright pointed lancet above it and a saddle-shaped piece between. The ears are large, pointed and without a tragus, and move independently and very fast. The call is a long note of almost constant pitch; in the returning echo the animal hears an insect's wingbeat as a flutter. To keep that echo within the narrow band its ear is tuned to, the bat lowers the pitch of its own call in flight as it closes on its prey. The wings are broad and rounded, the flight slow, low and manoeuvrable. The hind legs are so one-sidedly built for hanging that walking is impossible; at rest they hang free and wrap the wings entirely round the body like a cloak — no other European bat does this.