Echolocation is nature’s built-in sonar. Here’s how it works.

Nature’s own sonar system, echolocation occurs when an animal emits a sound wave that reflects an object and returns an echo that provides information about the distance and size of the object.

More than a thousand species of echoes, including most bats, all toothed fish and small mammals. Many are nocturnal, burrowing and ocean-like animals that rely on echolocation to find food in an environment with little or no light. Animals have different methods of echolocation, vibrating from the throat to flapping their wings.

Nocturnal oil birds and some snails, some of which hunt in dark cave environments, “deliver short clicks with their syrinx, the vocal organ of birds,” says Kate Allen, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology and Brain Studies at John Hopkins University. by email.

Some people may also find echo by clicking on their tongues, a behavior that only a few other animals share, including tenrecs, a squirrel-like animal from Madagascar, and the Vietnamese dwarf house, which is effectively blind.

Bats are the best poster animal for echolocation, and use their built-in sonar to quickly chase flying prey at night.

Most bats, such as the small bat of Daubenton, contract their laryngeal muscles to make sounds that are above the human audience – which is a scream, says Allen. (Related: when it comes to egg location, some bats just fly it.)

Bat calls vary wildly between species, allowing them to distinguish their voice from other bats in the area. Their calls are also specific to a specific environment and prey: The European bat “whispers” in the presence of moths to prevent detection.

However, some moths have developed their own defenses against bats. The tiger moth bends the teatball organ on either side of its chest to produce clicks, which grip bat sonar and keep the predators at bay.

As expert eggolocators, some bats can set objects as small as 0.007 inches, about the width of a human hair, zero. Because insects are always on the move, bats have to click constantly, sometimes making 190 calls per second. Even with such a difficult quarry, the predators can still eat half their weight of insects.

Bats with a leaf nose echo through their large, intricate noses, helping to focus sounds that bounce back. Some species can also quickly change their ear shape to accurately pick up incoming signals.

A few fruit bats, such as the South Asian smaller dawn, even make clicks by flapping their wings, a recent discovery.

Echolocation is a logical strategy in the ocean, where sound moves five times faster than in the air.

Dolphins and other toothed whales, such as the beluga, resound via a specialized organ called the dorsal bursae, which sits at the top of their head, near the bladder hole. (Read how whales have a “sonar bar” to target prey.)

A fat deposit in this area, called the melon, reduces the impedance, or resistance to sound waves, between the dolphin’s body and the water, making the sound clearer, says Wu-Jung Lee, a senior oceanographer at the University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory.

Another fat deposit, extending from the lower jaw of a whale to its ear, makes clear the echo returning from prey, such as fish or squid.

Harbor figs, a favorite prey of the orcas, make extremely fast, high-frequency echo-local clicks that their predators cannot hear, so they can remain incognito.

Most echolocation sounds from marine mammals are too loud for humans to hear, with the exception of potters, orcas and some dolphin species, Lee adds.

In addition to hunting or self-defense, there are again animals that navigate through their habitat.

For example, large brown bats, which are widespread in the Americas, use their sonar to weave through noisy environments, such as forests teeming with other animal calls.

The Amazon dolphins can also resound to move through tree branches and other obstacles created by seasonal flooding, Lee says.

Most people who resonate are blind or visually impaired and use the skill to perform their daily activities. Some click, with their tongues or an object, like a cane, and then navigate via the resulting echo. Brain scans of humans that take place through echo show the part of the brain that processes vision is used during this process. (Read how blind people use sonar.)

“Brains do not like undeveloped real estate,” says Allen, so “it’s too metabolically expensive to maintain.” Ecolocation with people who do not need it.

Nevertheless, people are remarkably adaptable, and research shows that we can patiently teach ourselves to reproduce.