WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: What Animal Has the Best Echolocation Abilities?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.440
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:09.480
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Bomb and this this is a

0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:12.600
<v Speaker 1>classic episode from our archives, and this one we talk

0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.680
<v Speaker 1>about how echolocation works and what animals do it best.

0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.320
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb. Here, take a second

0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.079
<v Speaker 1>to think about a nar wall. It's a whale with

0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.440
<v Speaker 1>a unicorn horn of fairytale animal right, so it may

0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.200
<v Speaker 1>come as no surprise that this improbable animal of the

0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:35.800
<v Speaker 1>North Seas has actual superpowers. The nar walls spiral horn

0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:39.279
<v Speaker 1>isn't just decorative. It's actually a modified tooth that can

0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:41.680
<v Speaker 1>grow to lengths of up to nine feet that's about

0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:46.040
<v Speaker 1>three meters. These tusks contain around ten million nerve endings.

0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:48.840
<v Speaker 1>Some nar walls have two tusks, while others have none,

0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.760
<v Speaker 1>and they use them for a variety of purposes, like

0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.760
<v Speaker 1>testing the chemical concentrations in seawater. The males use their

0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.520
<v Speaker 1>tusks to advertise the size of their testicles to females,

0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:00.360
<v Speaker 1>and it would be a shame if they did fight

0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.240
<v Speaker 1>using them like fencing foils, which don't worry, they totally do.

0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:07.440
<v Speaker 1>But a study published in the journal p l Os

0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.480
<v Speaker 1>one finds the narwhall in possession of the most powerful

0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.800
<v Speaker 1>directional sonar of any animal on Earth. Because, of course,

0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:18.280
<v Speaker 1>lots of marine mammals use echolocation to find their way

0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:21.360
<v Speaker 1>around in the ocean's murky depths, but this ability to

0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.920
<v Speaker 1>use sonar to determine where objects are in space is

0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.759
<v Speaker 1>especially crucial for narwhals. They're deep divers and just one

0:01:27.760 --> 0:01:30.560
<v Speaker 1>of two species of toothed whales who live year round

0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.399
<v Speaker 1>in the Arctic Circle off the coast of Canada. In Greenland.

0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:36.920
<v Speaker 1>The seas are most often completely covered in ice, and

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:39.360
<v Speaker 1>narwhales live in complete darkness for much of the year.

0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:41.720
<v Speaker 1>Since the narwhale has to come up to the surface

0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:43.759
<v Speaker 1>of the water for air every five minutes or so,

0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.679
<v Speaker 1>they have to be able to precisely and quickly detect

0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.080
<v Speaker 1>small holes and cracks in the ice through which to

0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.080
<v Speaker 1>grab quick gulps of air. Dr Kristen Latter, an ecologist

0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.640
<v Speaker 1>at the University of Washington, told The New York Times,

0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:58.480
<v Speaker 1>you don't see open water for miles and miles, and

0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.920
<v Speaker 1>suddenly there's a small crack and you'll see nar walls

0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:04.000
<v Speaker 1>in it. I've always wondered, how do these animals navigate

0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:06.480
<v Speaker 1>under that, and how do they find these small openings

0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.600
<v Speaker 1>to breathe. To find out, she and her research team

0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.960
<v Speaker 1>placed microphones under the water around ice packs in Baffin Bay.

0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:15.639
<v Speaker 1>That's off the southern coast of Greenland and happens to

0:02:15.680 --> 0:02:18.800
<v Speaker 1>be where of the world narwhal's spend their winter. The

0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.520
<v Speaker 1>team then listened for the telltale sound of echolocating clicks.

0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.560
<v Speaker 1>They discovered that not only do nar whales produce them

0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:27.520
<v Speaker 1>at a rate of up to one thousand clicks per

0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:30.240
<v Speaker 1>second and receive the echoes back on pads and their

0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.799
<v Speaker 1>lower jaws, they can also direct them with incredible accuracy,

0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.200
<v Speaker 1>like the narrow beam of an adjustable flashlight. According to

0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.320
<v Speaker 1>the researchers, it's the most precise directional beam of all

0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:45.919
<v Speaker 1>animal echolocators. Other whales broadcast their echolocating sounds in all directions,

0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.960
<v Speaker 1>which is useful for receiving data back from great distances,

0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.679
<v Speaker 1>and it turns out narwhals can do that too. Other

0:02:51.760 --> 0:02:55.600
<v Speaker 1>animals like bats also use echolocation, but the narwhal's ability

0:02:55.680 --> 0:03:00.160
<v Speaker 1>to focus its clicks bests them all. When narwhal's track prey,

0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:02.679
<v Speaker 1>the study shows they can widen the sonar beam to

0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:04.960
<v Speaker 1>take in a larger area In this way, they can

0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.480
<v Speaker 1>get a sense of their surroundings with more accuracy than

0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.280
<v Speaker 1>any other echolocating animal on the planet. Let this be

0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:13.960
<v Speaker 1>a lesson to us all, then, just because an animal

0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:23.120
<v Speaker 1>seems mythologically amazing, that doesn't mean that it isn't. Today's

0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.480
<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Jesselyin Shields and produced by Tristan

0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.200
<v Speaker 1>McNeil and Tyler Clang. For more on this lots of

0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.080
<v Speaker 1>other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff

0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.440
<v Speaker 1>is production of my heart Radio. For more podcasts my

0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:36.200
<v Speaker 1>heart Radio, visit thing i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.080
<v Speaker 1>or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.