Echolocation - Bats and Whales

October 2013

Echolocation of Bats and Whales

Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029101617.htm

     Although bats and whales may seem very different, they both have developed the ability to use echolocation, or a biological sonar, for hunting. Danish researchers today show that the biosonar of toothed whales and bats are extremely similar, even though their environments differ and the two vary extremely in size. This is because through evolution, both bats and toothed whales have developed the same functional characteristics.
    Researchers from Aarhus University and University of Southern Denmark (Danish universities) are studying the "acoustic properties of the technique behind echolocation in bats and whales in the wild". These studies are providing a much more realistic picture of how the animals use echolocation in the wild.
     Professors of the universities say that the similarities of the two are because all mammalian ears are developed in quite similar ways, and "the contradicting physical conditions in air and water along with the differences in size of the animals even out the differences, that you would expect in the sound frequency".

     The researchers conclude that bats and toothed whales produce signals for echolocation in the same frequency range, from 10 to 200 kHz".