WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Can Bats Jam Each Other's Sonar?

0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:07.080
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.720
<v Speaker 1>I'm Lauren vogel Bomb. In today's episode is another classic

0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:12.400
<v Speaker 1>from our archives. In this one, we get into the

0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.279
<v Speaker 1>lifestyle of bats. Some of these animals find prey using sonar,

0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.799
<v Speaker 1>which god us wondering whether they can jam each other's

0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:27.000
<v Speaker 1>sonar and save more treats for themselves. Hey there, brain Stuff,

0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.040
<v Speaker 1>Lauren vogel Bomb here. All creatures living in the wild

0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.320
<v Speaker 1>will try to gain an advantage when it comes to

0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:35.400
<v Speaker 1>finding their next meal. Some animals will use their size,

0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:38.000
<v Speaker 1>big or small, while others rely on speed or the

0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.919
<v Speaker 1>ability to make a threatening sound. But the bat has

0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.840
<v Speaker 1>a different kind of trick up its sleeve or wing

0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:48.239
<v Speaker 1>signal jamming. That's are nocturnal hunting mainly in the darkness

0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.040
<v Speaker 1>of night. They eat prey that's tiny and quiet, like

0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:53.600
<v Speaker 1>moths and other insects, which can be difficult to find

0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.680
<v Speaker 1>in low light and darkness. Although the expression blind is

0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.639
<v Speaker 1>a bat is widely used, bats are not blind. They

0:00:59.840 --> 0:01:02.160
<v Speaker 1>just do use a means of locating these tiny tidbits

0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.520
<v Speaker 1>of dinner other than site. When it's time to find food,

0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.200
<v Speaker 1>bats emit a series of high pitched sounds into the

0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.119
<v Speaker 1>darkness that bounce back when they hit an object. When

0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:13.640
<v Speaker 1>a bat hears the echoing sound, it knows an object

0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.040
<v Speaker 1>is nearby, and it flies closer to the source of

0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.600
<v Speaker 1>the echo to send out more signals. As the echo

0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:21.919
<v Speaker 1>back sound increases in intensity, the bat knows it's getting

0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.119
<v Speaker 1>closer to the prey, and it keeps up this echolocation

0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:28.680
<v Speaker 1>until it can swoop in for the kill. While primarily

0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:31.360
<v Speaker 1>using sonar to find food, it turns out the bats

0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.520
<v Speaker 1>can also use their sonar in a hostile and competitive way.

0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.480
<v Speaker 1>Wake Forest University researcher William Connor and his University of

0:01:38.520 --> 0:01:42.160
<v Speaker 1>Maryland colleague Aaron Corcoran used audio and video systems to

0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.400
<v Speaker 1>observe the behavior of Mexican freetailed bats as they hunted

0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:48.560
<v Speaker 1>for tiger moths, a favorite snack, but favorite snack of

0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:51.160
<v Speaker 1>the bats, not the researchers. They found that the bats

0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.280
<v Speaker 1>admitted a specific sound that was successful in interfering with

0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:57.480
<v Speaker 1>the sonar of other prey seeking bats of the same species.

0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.280
<v Speaker 1>They called this process sweep jamming. The study concludes that

0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:04.640
<v Speaker 1>bats admit this sound intentionally to interfere with the sonar

0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:09.120
<v Speaker 1>of food seeking competitors. When the researchers played back recordings

0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:12.040
<v Speaker 1>of this jamming sound to other bats in search of insects.

0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:14.960
<v Speaker 1>Those bats were also thrown off track. The sound made

0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:17.639
<v Speaker 1>the bats eighty six percent more likely to miss their

0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:21.320
<v Speaker 1>prey target. The scientists experimented with other sounds, like white noise,

0:02:21.480 --> 0:02:24.920
<v Speaker 1>but those did not interfere with the bats sonar. In

0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:28.600
<v Speaker 1>the natural world, sonar and echolocation aren't exclusive to bats.

0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:31.520
<v Speaker 1>Mammals such as dolphins and other toothed whales also use

0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.280
<v Speaker 1>it to find their way, and humans too have adapted

0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.679
<v Speaker 1>technology to mimic this process. Ships regularly use sonar to

0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.000
<v Speaker 1>help them navigate and to explore what's in the water

0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.040
<v Speaker 1>under and around them. Sonar can indicate the presence of

0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.639
<v Speaker 1>another ship, a dangerous obstacle, or aquatic life. In warfare,

0:02:46.680 --> 0:02:48.840
<v Speaker 1>sonar can be life saving, cluing a ship in about

0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.440
<v Speaker 1>the presence of a hostile submarine or an enemy torpedo.

0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:54.640
<v Speaker 1>Technology can even jam the sonar of other ships, just

0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:57.919
<v Speaker 1>like bats. There's no evidence yet that other animals that

0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:02.040
<v Speaker 1>use echolocation for hunting employ signal jamming, but beats seemed

0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.600
<v Speaker 1>to have perfected the process of jamming one another signals

0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:11.320
<v Speaker 1>all in the search for a better meal. Today's episode

0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.800
<v Speaker 1>was written by Debbie Sponson and produced by Tristan McNeil

0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:16.280
<v Speaker 1>and Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of

0:03:16.280 --> 0:03:18.600
<v Speaker 1>other not so baddy topics, is it how Stuff Works

0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.519
<v Speaker 1>dot Com bring stuff this production of iHeart Radio. For

0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.280
<v Speaker 1>more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,

0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.040
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.