Greater mouse-tailed bats use their tail as a tactile sensor when navigating backwards

Animals use a wide arsenal of sensory modalities to orient, often combining information from different modalities to improve sensing. Animals mostly move forward and hence most of their sensory organs are frontal. In some situations, moving backwards is a necessity and some animals have evolved designated sensory strategies. The greater mouse-tailed bats (Rhinopoma microphyllum) belong to one of few bat families that possess a long free tail which they wag in a pendulum like pattern when moving backwards up walls and between obstacles. We show that greater mouse-tailed bats use their tail to navigate around obstacles and are hindered when their tail is anesthetized. Additionally, we find that they use their tail to discriminate between textures and can sense subtle changes. We suggest that the use of the tail as a tactile sensor enables these bats to move backwards quickly when other sensory modalities are useless.