Bat Echolocation Flashcards
What did Lazzaro find about bats?
- producing sound and being able to hear is vital for navigating
- removed eyes = fine
- plugged ears = not fine
- tubes in ears = fine
- plugged tubes in ears = not fine
- tapped mouths shut = not fine
What did Griffin find about bats?
- animal rights activist
- using theory determined that they use ultrasound and coined the term echolocation
- used an ultrasound detector made by Peterson
- discovered that bats hit or touched a wire more if it was thinner (<0.5mm)
- as bats got closer to target their pulse rate increased and pulse duration decreased
What did Simmons find about bats?
- use delay between pulse and echo
- trained bats to land on one of two platforms
- used speakers to play back a phantom echo
What are the two components of the emitted ultrasound? What environment is each useful in?
- Frequency modulated (FM) component: useful in forests
- Constant frequency (CF) component: useful in open spaces
What kind of bat is Eptesicus?
- FM bat
- produce broad band signal 100 khz to 25 khz
How is distance deciphered?
- use time delay from pulse to echo
- FM bats use frequency analysis and time analysis
- echo intensity: far away if weak
- frequencies returned: high frequencies don’t travel far
How is the subtended angle deciphered?
- the loudness of the echo determines the subtended angle
- problem: could be small and close or far away and large
How is absolute size deciphered?
- using a combination of distance info (delay) and subtended angle (amplitude)
What does a azimuth angle tell the bats and how is it found?
- location in the horizontal plane
- by binaural cues
What does elevation tell the bats and how is it found?
- location in vertical plane
- moving ears in various positions
What kind of bat is rhinolophus?
- CF-FM bat
- pulses with long constant frequency then rapid downward FM sweep
- sensitive to 83 KHz
What is the doppler shift problem?
- if the predator and prey are still, the frequency will return the same
- if predator and prey are moving towards each other, the frequency will increase
- problem: returning frequency could be outside of species specific frequency range
How do bats compensate for the doppler shift problem? What research was done to discover this?
- when moving forward they lower the frequency emitted so the returning frequency will be within the specific range
- bats placed on swing and recorded pulses
- also means that the loud pulse emitted is out of their range and they avoid deafening
What is the acoustic fovea?
- increase in sensitivity to a narrow range of frequencies
- results from a range of adaptations
What kind of bat is Pteronotus?
- CF-FM bat with several harmonics
- harmonic at 60 Hz is the loudest