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How many species of bats are recognized?
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bat
Livingstone's fruit bat (Pteropus livingstonii) in flight.
There are currently more than 1,200 species of bats recognized worldwide.12
While older taxonomic records, such as those published in 2005, listed 1,116 species, the number of recognized species continues to increase due to the discovery of new forms and the use of DNA analysis to better understand the evolutionary relationships between known populations. As the only mammals capable of true flight, bats represent a highly diverse and populous order (Chiroptera) found in tropical and temperate regions across the globe.312