Bats are unique mammals notorious for navigating in the dark to catch their prey. They find their enemies by emitting ultrasonic pulses and listening to the returning echo. A recent study in Science Daily found that certain bats are able to change the shape of their outer ear from one extreme to another in order to change their hearing.
Changing the shape of their ear changes the bat’s ultrasonic hearing pattern. This allows them to find and capture their prey extremely precisely. The speed at which they are able to change their ear shape is remarkable. According to researchers at Virginia Tech’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Horseshoe bat can alter their ear shape in about 100 milliseconds. A human blink can take up to two to three times as long. The Horseshoe bat can use their sonar system to maneuver through vegetation and identify prey even under the most difficult conditions.
The researchers from Virginia Tech have also been able to reconstruct the geometries of the outer ears from live horseshoe bats as they deform in these short time periods. The researchers found that the different ear configurations could suit different hearing tasks performed by the animals using computer analyses. The researchers are now focusing on the understanding of how the most capable biological sensory system can achieve their best performances. It is amazing how certain bats can adjust the shape of their ear and change the shape so quickly to locate their prey.
Posted by Ryan Brooks (7)
This adaption makes sense because bats are so dependent on hearing. It is very logical that an animal that has underdeveloped eyesight would have overdeveloped hearing to componsate. Animals have very interesting adaptions to help them with the environments. The sand mole that lives in the dessert and hunts for termites underground uses ultrasonic pulses given off by termites underground to locate them. It also has increased hearing and underdeveloped eyesight. Animals are going to adapt best to their environments and the type of prey that they hunt.
ReplyDeletePosted by Noelle Kellicker
I find it remarkable that creatures that are “inferior” to us often times have abilities that we cannot even fully comprehend yet. Even the ability of bats to use echolocation amazes me. It is a testament to how nature and evolution has allowed for the development of some truly complex abilities.
ReplyDeleteIt is a little unclear to me as to what you mean by the “different ear configurations could suit different hearing tasks”, can you clarify a bit please?
Posted by James Lin
Na-a-na-a-na-a-na-a-na-a-na-a Bats man! They have such a fascinating system, using ultrasonic pulses like min-submarines flying around. All in all, it does make sense bats would have evolved such an advanced form of hearing in order to maximize navigation and hunting abilities. I would love to see this ear movement in action in slow-mode HD, as its speed seems far too fast to observe properly for us. We might blink and miss it!
ReplyDeletePosted by Austin Gray
Now my question is, what technologies could be developed from such knowledge? Flight patterns of moths have already been mimicked in robot form, and sonar itself is a concept found constantly in nature. I'm wondering if perhaps this discovery will lead to further innovations in technology.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Lane
A bat's hearing is very important to it so I can see where this adaptation comes from, but it amazes me that it can occur so quickly. You might not be able to answer this, but do you know if the bats have special muscles or nerves that allow it to do this?
ReplyDeletePosted by Janelle Hayes
This article is really interesting. In my neurobio class we discussed the importance of the outer ear. I had always considered it something of an anomaly, but it turns out that a great amount of information regarding the localization of sound is generated through these structures. The fact that bats can manipulate this structure must generate even greater accuracy.
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Thomas
This post is very interesting. In my animal behavior class we learned about the way bats detect their prey and it absolutely amazes me. They use this ultrasonic pulse by waiting for the sound to bounce off the prey and the echo is heard by the bat. It confuses me because I feel as though the same echo would be made by objects of similar size of a moth, such as a leaf. How is this echo enough information for the bat to be able to catch prey so accurately?
ReplyDeletePosted by Abbie Saranteas
Animals can communicate in such amazing ways. Bats can use their ultrapulse to not only communicate with each other but also navigate in pitch-black darkness. Remember when we discussed the tungara frog and how the more complex calls attracts bats? Bats can even use other species calls to identify and prey on them. These animals are truly extraordinary.
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Shi
For the fact that they can understand other species calls, they must have large HVC centers in their brain. They must be able to understand many calls for the species around them. My question is that are the calls hardwired based on the animals that live around there or is it learned? Also if it is learned how many times do the songs have to be heard?
ReplyDeletePosted by Jobin
It is amazing that bats in the animal kingdom adapted such a unique sensory system as ultrasound. This truly makes a bat unique from many things in the animal kingdom. It reminds me of almost a submarine using sonar or a battleship using radar which sends signals out that bounce back when they impact an object.
ReplyDeletePosted by: Andrew Ryan