Night of the Bat — Paul Zindel

When Indian workers begin to disappear from an expedition into the Amazon, fifteen-year-old Jake fears that his father, a bat biologist, is in great danger. Against his dad's wishes, Jake flies to Brazil and joins his father's research team, working high in the canopy of a remote stretch of the rain forest. Unfortunately, Jake's first climb up the rope bridges and suspended walkways of the dense forest leads him to discover the mutilated bodies of the missing Indians--and triggers a terrifying, explosive attack by an unknown winged beast. For a while the biologists and workers hunt the savage beast, but when Jake's father is attacked, it becomes clear that the hunters are now the hunted....