Holy Echolocation, Batman!

Bats find food in a cluttered space much the same way that humans shuffle through a crowded refrigerator looking for a late night snack. Except, while people use sight to find that chocolate cake gem behind the lettuce, bats use sonar to find a tasty insect hiding in the trees.

Bats find their way around by a process called echolocation. They emit ultrasonic pulses that hit objects like leaves, trees, and insects, and bounce back to the bat to tell it what's around them.

But when an echo returns from "clutter" at the same time a sound bounces back from an insect, the bat has trouble figuring out where its meal is. New research has revealed how bats sort out the clutter from the food.

"We have found that bats adjust the timing of their sounds when they encounter clutter, and they seem to 'strobe' the world with sound," said Cynthia Moss of the University of Maryland.

This research also debunks a long held belief that a bat's sonic pulse output is tied to its respiration and wingbeat. Instead, Moss found that bats adjust their sonic pulse output to respond to information they receive from echolocation.

This study is detailed in the March 6 issue of the journal PLoS Biology.