| The diversity of morphologies among flying vertebrates has led a number of investigators to ponder the functional significance of the broad spectrum of tail, body, and wing shapes found among these animals. In bats, a number of studies have shown an association between wing morphology and habitat use or foraging behavior. For example, bats foraging in open habitats tend to have high wing loading (weight per wing area) while those foraging in vegetation tend to have low wing loading. Successful habitat exploitation depends on a bat's maneuverability, which in turn is affected by the complex interplay of morphological characteristics and wing kinematics. With the goal of understanding the functional relationship between morphology and maneuverability, I conducted two types of experiments using live bats and "virtual" bats in a computer simulation and made empirical measurements of aerodynamic properties of wings, bodies, and tail membranes. In the first experiment, I measured maneuverability through an obstacle course in five species of Neotropical bats and found that two suites of characters associated with body size and ability to camber wings were correlated with maneuverability. The second experiment used a computer model which incorporated force and moment calculations to predict flight trajectories in a body free to move in six degrees of freedom. Additionally, using a simplex minimization routine I explored kinematic control parameters necessary to produce level flight in a freely rotating body. The computer model confirmed results from the maneuverability experiments that body size and wing loading are critical in determining aerodynamic stability and maneuverability. |
