How does echolocation work?

Question

Oliver Antoine · Accepted Answer

Animals emit a sound and listen to how the sound echoes to gain information about the area around them.

Animals emit a high-pitched sound and listen to how the sound echoes to gain information about the area around them.

When an animal produces a sound wave, that wave moves through the air and bounces off of whatever object it comes across. How the sound waves bounce off other objects can tell an animal where it needs to navigate to or where its prey item is.

Sperm whales, dolphins, porpoises, bats, some species of shrew, and tenrecs in Madagascar all use echolocation. In the case of a bat, the bat can gain information based on which ear the sound wave hit first and it can send out sound waves more frequently as it closes in on its prey.

Echolocation has also been studied in dolphins. Dolphins use an organ on their head that is filled fat to focus outgoing sound waves. This organ is called a melon. Fat in their lower jaw receives returning sound waves.

To read about echolocation, see here.

Eli Ayoub · Answer

undefined Echolocating is a sensory-based process in which an organism uses sounds, usually high-frequency clicks or calls, to detect the return of echoes from objects in its environment. The organism uses its sensitive auditory system to identify the location, size, shape, and occasionally even texture of objects in its environment.