7 Animals That Appear to Fly (Besides Birds, Bats, and Insects)

The only animals that can truly fly are birds, insects, and bats. Other animals manage to travel through the air by gliding from great heights or leaping from the depths. Here are a few.

1. Devil Rays

The devil rays, in the genus Mobula, are related to manta rays. Their wingspan can grow up to 17 feet wide, making them the second-largest group of rays after the mantas. These muscular fish can leap several feet out of the water, but no one is quite sure why they do it.

2. Colugos

These tree-dwelling gliders are sometimes called flying lemurs, but they're neither true lemurs nor do they fly. These mammals in the genus Cynocephalus are native to Southeast Asia and are about the size of a house cat. Colugos can glide up to 200 feet between trees using their patagium, or flaps of skin between their front and hind legs that extend to their tail and neck (colugos are even webbed between their toes). In the air, they can soar gracefully through the forest, but on the ground, they look like an animated pancake.

3. Flying Fish

There are about 40 different species of flying fish in the family Exocoetidae, although they don't fly so much as they leap from the water with a push of their powerful pectoral fins. Most of the species live in tropical waters. Fish have been observed skipping over the waves for as long as 45 seconds and 650 feet. Scientists suspect that flying fish leap into the air to escape predators.

4. Paradise Tree Snake

The paradise tree snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) lives in the rain forests of Southeast Asia. It glides from the treetops by flattening its body out to maximize surface area, wiggling from side to side to go in the desired direction. Though the idea of a flying snake may be terrifying, C. paradisi is not harmful to humans.

5. Flying Geckos

Flying geckos, a group of gliding lizards in the genus Gekko, live in the wet forests of Southeast Asia. In addition to patagia that let them parachute from tree branches, the geckos have remarkably mutable skin that camouflages them against tree trunks extremely well.

6. Wallace's Flying Frog

Wallace's flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) is found in Malaysia and Indonesia. This frog has long webbed toes and a skin flap between its limbs which allows it to parachute—float downward at a steep angle—from the treetops. Although Wallace's flying frogs prefer to live in the forest canopy, they must descend to ground level to mate and lay eggs.

7. Flying Squirrels

Flying squirrels in the subfamily Sciurinae include dozens of species. They are native to North America and Eurasia. When it leaps from a tall tree, a flying squirrel will spread its patagium until it resembles a kite or parachute. The squirrel can steer by moving its wrists and adjusting the tautness of its skin.