The results of echolocation help bats navigate the night skies. It makes perfect sense that bats would need an extra ability to have the best hearing possible. Since their ultrasonic pulses bounce off many different objects around them, bats need an ability to pick these sounds up from multiple areas.
To do this, bats can change the outer structure of their ears within 1/10th of a second; the blink of a human eye takes twice as long. This was discovered by researchers at Virginia Tech with the ability of computer analysis. The change improves the qualitative hearing of the bat, creating different “spotlights” which allow the bat to know much more about its surrounding area.
Interested in teaching your students more about ecology? Check out SSR's Vol 41 DVD, episode Ecology – Bats: Creatures of the Night. If your school would like to receive this free resource, visit http://www.ssrvideo.com/nhcmsp.html.
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