Lizzy

I am Masingita Lizzy Maluleke.I did Bachelor degree of Enviremental Sciences at the University of Venda for science and technology majored with Geography and Ecology and Resourse Managenment.I am presantly doing honours with the university of the Western Cape in Ecological Informatics.

Monday, May 15, 2006

ECHOLOCATION IN BATS AND WHALE


Echolocation is the biological sound used by mammals such as bats, dolphins and whales to emit sound waves that encounter objects and these sound waves create a complex sound that returns back to the ears. Echolocation is some times known as Biosonar. Bats that echolocate are of the suborder Microchiroptera from the mammals order Chiroptera. The bats of Microchiptera suborder produce all manner of sound for echolocation and they do for the purpose of catching prey such as insects.


Human ear can not hear echolocation of the bats can not be heard by the human ear because their sonar pulses are beyond the range of human hearing. It is also said that not all bats echolocate, but bats of the sub-order Microchiroptera do echolocate. Furthermore, members of this sub-order produce all manner of the sounds through echolocation. The sub-order of this group also does echolocate in order catch many preys and other many insects. On the other side bats of moustached are said to be highly dedicated to the task of echolocation and are also said to be an excellent species.


The ear of the human is thought to be unable to hear the echolocation abilities of the bats. Bats are also said to produce different types of sounds during the echolocation process for example, mustached bat is thought to produce a bisonar sound consisting of a frequency which is constant which. Bats catch their prey by flying around, they do so by using their sonar signals as information about the food in the area. The sonar signals which are used by bats act like the waves of the sound, because sonar signals that the bat produce return in the form of the echo, which the bat detect with auditory structures.


On the other side whales use echolocation to sense their objects. In echolocation highly pitched sound is sent by the whale. The sound is sent in this way, the sound bounces off the object and some returns to the whale. Therefore, the returning echo is interpreted by determining the shape of the objects, direction, distance and the texture. Teeth of the echolocation start with a series of the low-frequency. The echoed sound waves are received in the flat-filled cavities of the bone of the lower jaw. These sounds are conducted through the bone to ear and the brains where as the location of the object is interpreted. The whale can determine the distance to an object, its size, shape, the speed that the object is travelling and its texture.


It is also possible that the whales may use other types of sound to perform similar functions as the traditional sonar signals of the dolphins. While on the other hand whales do not produce high frequency, broad band, short duration clicks. They also produce lower frequencies as compared to the mustached bat. The echoes returned as the low frequency sound bounce off features in the ocean. In conclusion, one can say that the echolocation process is useful in bats because it seems unique in bats. This is because echolocation is only unique to the bats.

References:

Wikipedia contributors. Echolocation [Internet] Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia 2006 May 07, 18: 16 UTC [cited May 15, 16: 10]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_echolocation

Wikipedia contributors. Echolocation [Internet] Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia 2006 May 13, 00: 49 UTC [cited May 15, 16: 10]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale


Lizzy Maluleke
CSIR PTA
0001
Cell number 072 351 8488
Tell [012] 841 2133
Fax [012] 842 3676
E-mail mmaluleke@csir.co.za
Weblog: http://mmaluleke.blogspot.com

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