ABSTRACT
Bats are the only mammals that fly; for this reason, except for English, other languages use expressions about flying capacity when referring to bats. In German it is “fledermaus” (flying mouse), in Swedish “fladermus”, in Danish “flagger-mur”, in Provensal “soritz-pennada” (rat with wings), in Chinese “Scin shii” (celestial mouse), in the náhuatl language (used by Aztecs) “quimich-papalotl” (butterfly mouse), in French “chauve-souris” (hairless mouse), referring to the lack of hair on the wing membranes, and in Portuguese and Spanish it is expressed as “morcego” and “murciélago”, respectively, which mean blind mouse with wings. As can be observed, it is remarkable that people with such different cultures, so remote one from another, all refer to bats by the common factor of the presence of wings.
