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11 Strange Creatures That You Probably Didn't Know Could "Fly"

2/10/2014

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Ok, so the first 10 of these creatures aren't actually true flyers, they're considered gliders and some of them can travel great distances through the air using different tactics. Mostly these evasive maneuvers are used to outsmart potential predators and to flee from danger.
The Colugo, also known as a flying lemur, has a skin membrane that spans the entire length of the body. This membrane allows them to glide up to 150m, "flying" from tree to tree to forage on leaves.
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Source: Flickr / yiwenwong
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Credit: Norman Lim
Flying Snakes... This is what nightmares are made of. There are 5 different species of these flying snakes. They will flatten out their bodies and slither off the end of a branch, making twists and turns through the length of their bodies to make them "fly" through air. Could you imagine having one of these flying through the air towards you? Good thing they are considered harmless to humans!
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Credit: Jake Socha
Draco Lizards - also sometimes called "flying dragons"- have a membrane of skin that expands when the lizard is ready to take off and then folds back up after it lands.
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Source: wildsingapore
These Flying Fish have developed an ingenious way to escape predators. When they are about to become dinner, they are able to skim their tails over the surface of the water to propel themselves up and out of harms way. They open their "wings" and can float through the air above the water at a distance of up to 50m.
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Wallace’s Flying Frog is one of the largest of all tree frogs. It is capable of gliding down from the forest canopy by using its enlarged webbed feet as parachutes to "fly" through the tree canopy.
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Credit: Ch'ien C. Lee
The Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel is the largest species of giant squirrel at over 1m long from head to tail and can glide up to 20m through the air. Some have even been observed gliding up to 400m traveling downhill.
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Credit: Burrard-Lucas
Mobula Rays can grow up to 10 feet long and they can be seen soaring up to 2m out of the water in a strange and acrobatic display, flapping it's pectoral fins up and down like wings, somersaulting through the air, high vertical leaps and belly flopping back into the water.
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Credit: Michael Nolan/ SeaPics.com
When these wingless, tropical Gliding Ants get knocked out of their trees, they use
their hind legs like rudders to steer themselves back towards the safety of the nearest tree trunk. I sure wouldn't want one of these landing in my hair!

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Credit: Alex Wild
It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's a Flying Squid! These incredible creatures can propel themselves out of the water using a high pressure jet stream of water, then they open their fins to glide above the water at up to 30m in just 3 seconds!
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Source: MercoPress
These tiny little Sugar Gliders are nocturnal and they like to perform crazy acrobatic tricks and can glide through the air for distances up to 66m.
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This Giant Golden-Crowned Fruit Bat is often referred to as a "Flying Fox"... I think you can see why. When I think of bats I generally don't think of something quite this enormous. This behemoth megabat can have a wingspan of over 5 feet! We all know that bats can fly, but this bat's sheer size was definitely worth mentioning.
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