FLIGHT OF THE FRUIT BAT

The sky blazed orange as the Sun sank beneath the horizon. Screeching cries echoed across the savannah as shadowy tree silhouettes began to shudder.

- Rachel Kehoe

Millions of fruit bats hanging from their roosts started to wake. They covered the drooping branches, forcing many to cling to the bodies of their neighbors for space. Dusk fell, and the air filled with the rushing sound of millions of wings as clouds of flying mammals covered the sky in search of a nighttime feast.

Massive Migration

Africa's wildlife is famous around the world. In the Great Migration, up to two million wildebeests, antelope, and zebras stampede across Tanzania into Kenya. But the largest annual wildlife migration doesn't take place on land. Instead, it happens in the sky. There, 10 million African straw-colored fruit bats fly more than 1,000 miles (2,000 km) from various places to reach the evergreen forests and wetlands of Kasanka, the smallest national park in Zambia.

The migration of the strawcolored fruit bat is one of the natural world's best-kept secrets.

And it is vital to the surrounding environment. But these bats are now under threat-and one of the most incredible animal migrations may soon vanish.

Wildlife Wonder

The African straw-colored fruit bat weighs up to 350 grams-just three quarters of a pound. Yet it is the second largest bat on the continent.

These fruit bats often live in massive colonies made up of thousands to millions of individuals. Like most bats, they are nocturnal, or active at night. They sleep during the day, hanging upside down from tree branches. When the Sun sets, they wake up and go off in search of food. Straw-colored fruit bats can travel immense distances, thanks to a wingspan of three feet (one meter). When food becomes scarce, these "flying foxes" journey up to 100 kilometers (62 miles) in a night before returning to their roost.