Echolocation, also called biosonar, is the biological active sonar that several groups of animals use, in the air and underwater, to navigate, forage, and hunt by emitting calls and listening for the echoes that bounce back from nearby objects. It is used by toothed whales and many bat species, along with shrews, tenrecs, solenodons, and Chinese pygmy dormice, and by a few birds, namely oilbirds and cave swiftlets; some blind humans have also learned to echolocate. An echolocating animal measures the time delay between its own call and the returning echoes, using one sound transmitter and two ears spaced slightly apart so that echoes arrive at each ear at different times and intensities, which together reveal an object's distance, direction, size, composition, and movement.
Facts
Identification
Distinguishing AppearanceIn bats the sound is emitted through the open mouth or, much more rarely, the nose 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Animal echolocation
BatsQuote, Bats
and emit the sound through the open mouth or, much more rarely, the nose.
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