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Bat detectives

Bats don't see that well, but they're not "blind as bats" either.

Most bats go out at night or twilight to catch insects or dine on fruit. How do bats see well enough to catch flying insects in the dark?

They use a form of echolocation to detect their flying prey. By bouncing high-pitched sounds off objects in the air, they can sense the direction of prey and get a picture of how things are arranged in space. We rely on bounced light waves to get a picture of how things are arranged in space. Humans can't visualize or picture the arrangement of objects based on sound very well. They also don't glow in the dark like bats that can emit sound, so humans stumble in the dark. Vision doesn't work where there is no light.

Make like a bat and "see" the shape of the ground using echolocation.

Note - Bats pointing down.
All the bats are along a line.

Learn more about bats.
  Cynthia Moss talks about how bats use echoes to picture and remember environments.






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