Megabat long, thus smaller than some microbats, for example, the Mauritian tomb bat. The largest attain a wingspan of , and weigh as much as . Most fruit bats have large eyes, allowing them to orient themselves visually in twilight and inside caves and forests. Their sense of smell is excellent. In contrast to the microbats, the fruit bats do not use echolocation (with one exception, the Egyptian fruit bat "Rousettus egyptiacus", which uses high-pitched tongue clicks to navigate in caves). Megabats make up the only family (Pteropodidae) in order Chiroptera that is not capable of laryngeal echolocation. Echolocation and flight
Animal echolocation other, or both structures. An FM sweep is a broadband signal – that is, it contains a downward sweep through a range of frequencies. A CF tone is a narrowband signal: the sound stays constant at one frequency throughout its duration. Echolocation calls have been measured at intensities anywhere between 60 and 140 decibels. Certain microbat species can modify their call intensity mid-call, lowering the intensity as they approach objects that reflect sound strongly. This prevents the returning echo from deafening the bat. High-intensity calls such as those from aerial-hawking bats (133 dB) are adaptive to hunting in open skies.