Page 81 - Design in Nature

A colony of bats

Cave

The largest bat colony on earth, with a population It is discovered that bats wander in
reaching 50 million, lives in America. Freetails ride many different ways once they leave
60 mph (95 km/h), and fly as high as 10,000 feet (3050 their cave. However, they always fly
metres). It is so large that it can be easily observed back to it on a straight route from
by airport radar. 28 wherever they are. It is still not clear
how they are able to navigate the
return journey to the cave.

this cannot be explained by coincidence and can only be a sure sign of how
flawlessly Allah created the bat.
Scientific research further reveals new examples of the miracles of
creation in bats. Through each new miraculous discovery, the world of

science attempts to understand how these systems work. For example, new
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research on bats has had very interesting findings in recent years. A few
scientists, who wanted to examine a group of bats living in a certain cave,
installed transmitters on some of the group members. Bats were observed to
leave the cave at night and feed outside until dawn. Researchers kept
detailed records of these journeys. They discovered that some bats travelled

as far as 30-45 miles (50-70 kilometres) from the cave. The most astonishing
finding was the return flight, which started shortly before sunrise. All bats
flew straight back to the cave from wherever they were. How can bats know
where they are and how far away they are from their caves?
We do not yet have detailed knowledge of how they navigate their

return flight. Scientists do not believe the auditory system to have a big
impact on the return journey. Reminding us that bats are completely blind to
light, scientists expect to encounter another surprising system. In short,
science continues to discover new miracles of creation in the bats.