Echolocation is used by several animals such as bats, dolphins, toothed whales and some nocturnal birds. This technique allows animals to emit sounds and listen to the subsequent echo produced when it hits an object. Animals use it for hunting, communicating, detecting predators and avoiding obstacles in dark or turbid waters. We know that echolocation in terrestrial and aquatic species have similar functions, but are there any differences between them?<\/p>\n
Sound travels 344 metres per second (m\/s) in air, as opposed to 1,482\u00a0m\/s in water. Sound therefore travels 5 times faster in water than in air. Moreover, whales and bats, for example, do not seem to emit the same frequencies. Whales hear sounds with frequencies ranging from 10 Hz (infrasonic) to 60,000\u00a0Hz (ultrasonic). The frequency range perceptible to bats is higher, i.e. from 20 to 150,000 Hz. The giants of the seas are therefore masters of emitting low frequencies, while bats specialize in high frequencies. Many insects can detect and respond to the sounds of bats, while most fish and squid do not react to whale signals, though they are able to detect water movements generated by their approaching predators. These differences have an impact on how whales and bats use echolocation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Echolocation is used by several animals such as bats, dolphins, toothed whales and some nocturnal birds. This technique allows animals to emit sounds and listen to the subsequent echo produced when it hits an object. Animals use it for hunting, communicating, detecting predators and avoiding obstacles in dark or turbid waters. We know that echolocation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12853,"featured_media":62778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n