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Hands on flying

Bats are the only mammals that can fly, they can turn on a 5 pence piece and make incredible manoeuvres in mid air. Slow motion can reveal why bats have such amazing aerial agility. Unlike planes, bats' wings are never flat - they're constantly changing and adjusting their shape, because they aren't really wings, they are hands. Just like us, bats can bend and flex their fingers independently. With fingertip control they can fine tune their wings to exploit the tiniest fluctuations of the air around them.

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59 seconds

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