NA "Radar" and bats

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
A few days ago I was watching a huge gaggle of bats jink and dive after insects in their seemingly half-drunken manner.
Got to thinking about the book I just read on radar. Bats use ultrasound similarily to locate their breakfast.

Anyway, how do they 'hear' anything in the cacophony of u/s that must exist in the gaggle? Is their "radar range" so short (a few feet?) that they don't get confused by the other dozen or so broadcasting bats? Or do they each have a dedicated frequency?
Googling did not help, maybe you are a better googler?
 
I love watching the bats at our place do their dance in the evening too... never thought of that particular question........ It's a mystery to me.
 
Another slow news day in the prairie?

Let'sgoflying! said:
A few days ago I was watching a huge gaggle of bats jink and dive after insects in their seemingly half-drunken manner.
Got to thinking about the book I just read on radar. Bats use ultrasound similarily to locate their breakfast.

Anyway, how do they 'hear' anything in the cacophony of u/s that must exist in the gaggle? Is their "radar range" so short (a few feet?) that they don't get confused by the other dozen or so broadcasting bats? Or do they each have a dedicated frequency?
Googling did not help, maybe you are a better googler?
Click to expand...
 
There are a few bats in my back yard who fly around. I enjoy watching them fly over my head (sometimes only a few feet away) and eat the insects that annoy me.

But I have no idea to the answer to your question.
 
I imagine they do so in the same way that we can focus on the conversation with the person in front of us in a crowded noisy room.
 
steingar said:
I imagine they do so in the same way that we can focus on the conversation with the person in front of us in a crowded noisy room.
Click to expand...

Ah - so they nod, mumble something and pretend to know what is going on?!
 
It is amazing how loud the wing beat of a bat can be when it is flying around in your bedroom about 3 in the morning.
 
Thanks Rich,
I didn't see that in the article, you say its your guess?
So different frequencies and volumes might explain it?
Hey I have an ultrasound, I wonder what they'd do if I aimed the probe at a gaggle of them (hmm, shades of lasering airplanes mixed with wildlife harrassment, better not)

RJM62 said:
This is a pretty good explanation:
http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/bat2.htm
As to how the bat sorts out the noise, I guess it's because each bat knows his or her own voice.
-Rich
Click to expand...
 
wabower said:
Another slow news day in the prairie?
Click to expand...

No that was a quiet day, the highlight of the week's report being: We were standing behind a 8' tree about noon, taking a break in the mountains during a hike and this vulture came over the tree tops at high speed, but slowing - he had everything out and it made a crazy-loud swooshing right over our heads (he didn't see us til well into the buzzjob). We ducked and broke out into grins, "whoo, lookit that!".
 
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