Japanese horseshoe bats change echolocation calls to beat sonar noise, study finds
A study from Doshisha University reveals that Japanese horseshoe bats adjust their echolocation frequencies to match their colony members, reducing signal interference. This behavior allows them to navigate and hunt more effectively in groups.
Why it matters
Understanding how animals adapt their biological sonar to noisy environments provides valuable insights for improving human-made sonar and robotic sensing technologies.
Bats rely on echolocation to move through the dark and hunt insects. They send out high-pitched sound waves that bounce off nearby objects and return as echoes which helps them judge where things are.But when many bats send out similar sound waves at the same time, their signals can overlap. It creates noise that could make it harder for a bat to identify the echoes from its own calls.A new study published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A by researchers from Doshisha University in Japan. has found that greater Japanese horseshoe bats have a unique way of dealing with this challenge, Science X reported.These bats gradually adjust their calls so that members of the same colony use almost the same frequency.
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