Old World leaf-nosed bats | Hipposideridae

Bladneusvleermuizen | Hiposidéridos

Related to the horseshoe bats and working the same way — the call goes out through the nose and is focused by a fleshy noseleaf — but the leaf is built differently: broad and squared or notched along the top, without the erect lancet of the horseshoe bats. Here too each toe carries two joints instead of three, which makes the foot a simple hook from which the animal hangs without effort. The wings are short and broad and the flight is slow and fluttering, with brief glides, suited to searching among bushes and boulders for settled and low-flying insects. The call is a short note of constant pitch with a downward sweep at the end. They roost hanging free in caves, wells and ruins, each at some distance from its neighbour. The only species in the area is a pale desert bat of the south-eastern edge.