Able to echolocate
Echolocation, like the sonar used by ships and submarines, is a method of 'seeing' your environment using sound. Animals such as bats, dolphins and cave swiftlets emit high frequency sounds and listen for the echoes reflected back to them. In this way they can build up a picture of their surroundings, including other creatures that might be nearby.
What do they sound like?
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Fishing bats Featured in the following TV programmes
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Species with this adaptation
Mammals
Little bent-wing bat 
Beluga whale 
Common bottlenose dolphin 
Humpback whale 
Killer whale 
Pantropical spotted dolphin 
Peale's dolphin About
Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several animals such as shrews, most bats, and most cetaceans. The term was coined by Donald Griffin, who was the first to conclusively demonstrate its existence in bats. Two bird groups also employ this system for navigating through caves, the so called cave swiftlets in the genus Aerodramus (formerly Collocalia) and the unrelated Oilbird Steatornis caripensis.
Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects in the environment. They use these echoes to locate, range, and identify the objects. Echolocation is used for navigation and for foraging (or hunting) in various environments.
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Other Communication and senses Adaptations
- Able to echolocate
- Able to scent mark
- Adapted for ultrasound
- Bioluminescent
- Pheromone signaller
Elsewhere on the web
- Animal echolocation (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
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