WEBVTT - How Bats Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:16.160 dot com. Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:19.280 Chuck Bryant. I didn't know we were podcasting about dolphin. 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:25.160 That was my bat. Oh I thought it was a dolphin. No, No, 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:27.200 that was a bat. Well, then why are you wearing 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.680 your dolphin running shorts? That has nothing to do with 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.600 bats and everything to do with Dan Marino. They probably 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:37.520 still have those dolphin running shorts. What are you talking about? 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:41.680 Remember the little uh like real runners. They still wear 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.960 those shorts or maybe it's all spandex now like super tight, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.839 but they used to be just like a little whispy 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.400 piece of but they were called dolphins. Well, I think 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.560 that was the brand. I wasn't familiar remember, but you know, 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.240 things were you know, the right gust of wind could 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:01.640 reveal lots of things. I know you're talking about, like 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:06.920 short shorts, real flimsy one real satiny, flimsy, whispy. But 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.280 and I think I think they were dolphin running shorts. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.400 And by the way, this this podcast is not sponsored 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:18.039 by Dolphin running shorts. It's sponsored by the Bats of America. 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.759 That's right, which I always have liked bats. But after 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:26.440 reading this, I'm so much more in love with bats. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.360 Oh yeah, they're need animals. It's amazing and not just 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.880 like I learned a lot of stuff. I kind of 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:36.560 knew about the echo location and stuff like that. Yeah. Actually, 0:01:36.600 --> 0:01:41.880 here's here's my impression of a bat echo locating. Good huh, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.800 because humans can't hear it. That's right, I just did it. 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:48.760 Really great, very nice, chuck. If you are on the fence, 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:50.960 well not you, because you just stated that you're over 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:54.800 the fence clearly in the bat yard. Pro bat, pro 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.920 bat me too. Um. They never did anything to anybody 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.840 on purpose, from some of them sucking your blood while 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:05.880 you sleep. Aside from that super rare um, bats seem 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:07.960 to be pretty great animals. And if you're on the 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:10.240 fence about bats and you want to go over to 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.760 the pro bat side, go on to YouTube and type 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:16.560 in bat eating a banana. It's very cute. It's adorable. 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.280 There's also baby bat burrito videos. They're wrapped up in 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.840 a blanket out of tortilla. There's a lot of cute 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:25.920 bat videos out there because there's a lot of cute 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.760 bats there. Um. And you might say, no, no, no no, 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:35.080 I've seen bats they are as ugly as pure evil gets. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:38.959 You're talking about what are called micro bats, the ones 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:43.760 with the crazy nostrils that actually make un gag. Oh yeah, 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:46.240 I think they're cute too. I mean I get it 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:52.200 because they definitely look like uh, literary ghouls and fiends. 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:55.600 But um, which makes you wonder. I wonder if fiends 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.040 and ghouls were modeled after those types of bats. Oh 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.640 I'm sure, Okay, I didn't realize it was so obvious. 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:04.200 Well no, I mean it would have to, because that's 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.000 a real thing, and they look so much alike. Maybe 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.400 no one had seemed a bat and then they make 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.280 gargos are like, what a coincidence? Or maybe a bat 0:03:12.360 --> 0:03:14.120 just died at the feet of an artist one day 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.320 and he's like, oh man, I gotta cast this in 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.800 clay and put it on my front doorstep. I know 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.840 what you were driving at. Though. They are cute in 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:27.920 their own really weird uncanny way. Yeah so, but but 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.920 nothing like the flying fox. Those are legit cute. No, 0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.120 and actually this article needs to be updated. Man, So 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.440 bats are there's actually bats are the only flying mammals. 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.280 We should say, they're very unique animals. Only flying mammals wait, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.360 what about the penguin non flying and a bird. It 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.560 didn't even come close. Bats are mammals um and they're 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.800 more closely related to humans than say, like the fox 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:57.280 or the rat or whatever that they're they're frequently described 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.680 as being the flying version of um. And there's I 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.120 think something like species of bats species, and they all 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:11.400 belong to the order um Chiroptera, which means hand wing, 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.880 which we'll get to. And then bats typically are subdivided 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:17.680 into two sub orders, and it used to be mega 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:24.360 chi rop Tera and micro Chiropa. No, because science specifically 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:28.000 like taxonomy, used to be kind of dumb. It was 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:31.680 just based on appearance. And then once the field of 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.599 genetics came along, they started like genetically testing things and 0:04:34.640 --> 0:04:37.640 realizing that it's not a really good way to categorize 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.240 things like this skunk looks like a raccoon, but they're 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:42.760 not the same thing, right, so maybe they shouldn't be 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.120 in the same order any longer. This is the case 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:47.440 with bats, so um it used to be based on 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:52.000 their size megabats and microbats or megachira chirop Tera and 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.680 micro chirop Tara. Now, because of genetic testing, some of 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.680 the very small bats are now in the megabat order, 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.520 so order and vice versa, but those are still sub 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.919 orders they are, but they renamed him to megabats and 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:10.599 micro bats. But so, for example, the long tongue fruit 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:13.920 bat is considered a megabat, but it's wingspan is only 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.640 about ten inches. It's a little thing. Whereas if you 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.640 look at the flying fox or the fruit bat uh Asia, 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:27.039 Africa and Australia, those things are adorable and they are huge, 0:05:27.279 --> 0:05:29.800 like six ft wingspans on some of these bad boys. 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.320 And I mean, I think they're gorgeous. I know. I 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.599 think it's the wing just terrifies people. Yeah, because it 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.279 looks like a cute, little fuzzy fox and then he 0:05:38.320 --> 0:05:45.040 goes right, it envelops you and takes you to Well, 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.080 that's what evokes I think is uh is a cape 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:52.040 that something would wrap around you and suck your blood? Yeah, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:56.279 like a vampire. Oh I wonder if vampires were invented 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:02.200 independently a bat? Uh? Uh? The what is the cute 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.840 little guy that beat? Yeah? I posted a picture that 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.960 fella on Facebook today, Um, just as a teaser. People 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:12.720 didn't know we're gonna do an episode on it, just 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.360 to get reactions. And most people are like, oh, that's 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.400 super cute, and a lot of people are like, I 0:06:17.440 --> 0:06:20.320 still wouldn't touch that thing. Well, that's a really good, 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:23.440 sensible thing. Like bats might be cute and all that, 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:28.200 but they're also enormous reservoirs for diseases. They're like top 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.680 notch disease reservoirs for diseases that you and I can catch, 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:34.640 like ebola in rabies. And they think one of the 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.080 reasons is because they and we'll talk about this later, 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.600 but they're they're so comfortable with each other, they just 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.840 huddle together, spreading disease on one another exactly. I mean, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.599 like epidemic disease didn't take hold among humans until we 0:06:46.720 --> 0:06:49.880 moved into cities, and even in cities, like, we're still 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:55.560 not elbow to elbow figuratively we are, but not in reality. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:59.400 Bats are literally elbow to elbow in their colonies, so 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:03.800 disease spreads anywhere it wants among them. Yeah, however, about 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.360 the raby scare. They are carriers of rabies, but not 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:10.760 to like people think. I think less than one half 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:16.160 of one percent of bats are rabid, one half point 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.800 five and you're more way more likely to get rabies 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.640 from raccoons and skunks and okay, well there you go. 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:28.040 That that puts it in perspective because I like any raccoon. 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:30.559 I see, maybe I should stop doing that. You should 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:32.600 probably start do it. They bite me a lot, Yeah, 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:38.280 she checked out, Maybe I should. Uh so, yes, you said, 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:43.640 how many species about? And aside from varying in size, 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.520 like you said that, just a look of them, like 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.360 the flying fox looks, like we said, like a little 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.360 fox has that long snout, looks traditionally like a mammal 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.800 has smaller ears, and those little scary looking guys have 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.920 those huge ears, and that knows, that makes you meek gag. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.400 So here's the thing, like, I believe that even that 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:05.280 is up in the air now that they've started doing 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:09.920 genetic testing. What is like that classification based on looks 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:15.280 as well? It's it's just bat taxonomy is really up 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:20.240 for grabs right now. It's time. Let's say, generally speaking, 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:23.800 then the one of the other distinctions too, typically that 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:29.720 divides these two um suborders chuck is what they eat? Yeah, um, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:34.880 the micro bats tend to be carnivorous, so it includes 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:38.160 vampire bats, but vampire bats are not not all bats 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:42.440 are vampire bats, even if they're carnivorous. Most bats just 0:08:42.480 --> 0:08:48.280 the insects if they're carnivorous, like mosquitoes. But megabats, including 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.360 those the big ones with the six foot wingspan, the 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:55.959 flying fox I think you said, um, those are they're 0:08:56.000 --> 0:09:00.000 just hippies. They just eat plants, that's it, like literally 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:04.400 nectar and spread pollen. Yeah, it's pretty great like birds. 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:09.280 Why is that funny? It's pretty great. Yeah, it is. 0:09:10.000 --> 0:09:12.120 All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about the 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:16.680 wing because this is where my learning really started here 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.120 in researching this. The German word for bats is uh 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:29.920 fida moves. I expected more from you than that, yeah, really, yeah, 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.480 I expected you to put on like a metal hat 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.199 with like a spike coming out of the top that 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:39.720 translates into flying mice. Yes for the curious. And people 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.400 will say that because a bat does look kind of 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:44.920 like a flying mouse or flying rodent of some sort. 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.520 But like I said, they're much more closely related to humans. Yeah. 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.280 And you also might think they're like birds because they 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:55.240 fly around. Not so when you look at the wing 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.880 structure of a bat and a bird, uh, very different. 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.480 It actually if you look at a human, if you 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.000 held your arms out to your side with your elbows 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.400 bent and your fingers spread, and then basically shook your hands. Yeah, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.240 like you're gonna do jazz hands exactly. And then imagine 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:16.120 that there was a webbed membrane called a how would 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:21.360 you pronounce it, pettigym PETA giant peta giant. I don't 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.640 have one of those two those are the wings. The flesh. Yeah, 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:26.760 there you go, the flesh of the wing. If you 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:28.680 held your hands out into jazz hands, but it was 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:31.640 all webbed and connected. That is way more what a 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.040 bat's wing it looks like in functions like than a 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.319 bird's wing. Right. So a bird's wing has rigid bones 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.640 in it, right, and the muscles that control the wings 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.160 are located basically at what would amount to your armpits. 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.080 Like so like, just do the chicken nance real quick 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.239 and think about what you're doing. Yes, right, you're you're 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:53.520 you're not. There's not really any movement in the actual arm. 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.040 It's all at the shoulder joint. Ye. Same with birds. 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.920 With bats, that is not the case because their base 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.360 sically like winged hands, which is the reason they're their 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:07.120 order is named that right. Yes, um, they can basically 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:12.320 swim through the air, which allows them to dive, bomb 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:14.600 and turn and twist and go up and down and 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.760 go after These insects that can fly really fast, which 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:21.480 constitute most of their prey um much more easily, and 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.840 they're much more depth at um maneuvering midair than your 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.240 average bird is. Yes, absolutely, like a thousand times. There's 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:34.280 no science behind that. I would say even like times. Okay, well, 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.280 I mean if there's if we're going without scienceless to 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.640 say like a million times more a gazillion. Uh. They 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.719 have little thumbs that extend out of the wing as 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.000 a in the form of a little small claw, and 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:48.800 this is what they use to climb trees. Um, it's 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:50.600 really neat how they fly. I guess we'll go ahead 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.640 and let the cat out of the bag. They don't 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:56.719 have enough lift with their wings to take off like 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.600 sitting on a branch like a bird. They don't have 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.920 like strong enough legs to run run, run, run, run 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.360 down a runway and take off, so they hang upside 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.720 down and drop and then start flying. They have like small, 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.640 withered little legs that they basically dragged behind them as 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.600 they crawl. Yeah, and so that's why they climb trees. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.040 They climb up to a high launch point and we'll 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:22.320 get to the hanging later because that's super cool too, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:30.880 and then just fall and start flying. That's how bads fly. Uh. 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:36.400 Scientifically speaking, they believe that bat's um used to not fly, 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.320 and thanks to natural selection, the ones who could leap 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:44.480 further and further from tree to tree, uh were more successful, 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:50.000 and that eventually led to um that patagium being formed. Yeah, 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.080 they know they could fly, kind of like lemurs are 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:55.880 flying squirrels or something like that. Right, So, like one 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.000 of them was born with an extra skim flap and 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.040 everyone's like, you freak, and then it flew and they 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.520 were like, wow, the exactly look at all these insects 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:09.600 I got um. So they think that the bat evolved, 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.920 like you said, from a tree dwelling mammal, which we 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:16.319 likely did as well, which is why we're related to bats. 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.720 Most likely we share some sort of single common ancestor 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:25.040 that dwelt in trees um and probably bats evolved somewhere 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.480 around a hundred million years ago, is what they believe. 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:30.560 But I think the oldest fossils they found are like 0:13:30.640 --> 0:13:34.640 fifty million in change, and these fossils that they found 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:40.120 in wyoming um show that the wings are there, but 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:44.119 the ears are not developed, which suggests that flying developed 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:49.040 among bats before echolocation did, which has been a longstanding debate. 0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.240 Did they did echo like location come first, did flying 0:13:52.280 --> 0:13:54.600 come first, or did they both evolve at the same time? 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.319 And it turns out flying was first? Well, right for 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.640 this break, we will talk about that echo location. How 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:25.360 about that. Let's all right, Josh. We talked about the 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:29.640 wing structure makes them uh able to hunt really well, 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.480 but it's really a one two punch um along with 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:38.240 their echolocation or echo loctive abilities. I think that's the word. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:41.240 Is that a word? Yeah? Right? So, Um, you can 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.640 maneuver all day long, but if you can't find your prey, 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.680 usually doing a weird dance exactly, and you're just showing 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.840 off um and the way that bats find their prey. 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.920 There's a common myth, chuck that bat blind is a 0:14:54.960 --> 0:15:00.120 bat that bats can't see absolutely untrue. Most bats have 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:04.840 like perfectly good vision, like like exceptional vision. Even Yeah, Um, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.480 there was a study, it's some German study I believe 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:11.720 that found that um bats have rods and cones, which 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:14.760 means they can see color in the daylight as well 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:19.720 as um like black and white stuff right old movies, 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.080 um before Ted Turner got his hands on him, and 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.240 that never went anywhere. It really didn't. But now it's 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.240 like there, it's done. Now the Wizard of Oz is 0:15:30.280 --> 0:15:34.000 like gaudy, as gaudy as like the terra Cotta Army. 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.920 Originally the Wizard of Oz always was both because when 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.840 they get to Oz, it's color Oh yeah, you're right, Yeah, 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.800 well what oh gone with the wind? I think he 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:50.200 did colorize he did colorize it. Anyway, can you tell 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.480 it's been a little lot since we've done this. I 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:55.080 think it's great. I can. It's also really hot in here, 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.600 and it's getting hotter by the second. The more I stall, 0:15:58.680 --> 0:16:03.160 the hotter it gets. Allow me to continue. So bats 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.880 echolocate as well as c and again I'm not quite sure. 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.000 I couldn't find this chuck, but I think micro bats 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.520 might be the only type to echolocate. I don't think 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.160 all bats to. The reason why is because if you're 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:21.680 hippie pollen eating um herbivore bat, you don't need to 0:16:21.720 --> 0:16:24.440 echolocate your food. You can just fly around until you 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:27.480 run into a flower. Yeah, yeah, and smash it and 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.960 then just like lean over and suck it. There's some nectar. Okay. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:35.880 If you are seeking flying insects as your prey, then yeah, 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:39.760 you better be able to echolocate. And we can actually echolocate. 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.240 There's a man who um is sightless? Who who can 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:47.120 echo locate and he's a human being is Yeah, I 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.280 can't remember what. Maybe a Men's Health article on him 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.920 like this dude just taught himself to echo locate. Did 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:57.560 they call him batman? Probably? I don't remember that much. Well, 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.000 if you've ever been to um Canyon, let's say a 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:05.680 Grand canyon, let's say the Grand Canyon Um, and you 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:09.000 boom your your voice out there, please don't say hello, 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.760 or is anyone out there? Those are? You know? Come 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:17.240 up with something better than that, better than Pink Floyd lyrics. No, 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:23.440 if it's in that context, then it passes. What would 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.000 you recommend for an echo man? What's your go to 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:30.640 echo words? Um? Definitely not echo. I think echo is great, 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.000 it's hilarious. Definitely not Hello, you know, I would say 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.200 I would say, now batting for the New York Yankees, 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:40.040 Manny Moto, Mandy Moto, That's what I would do, but 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:44.960 you could also do cock do the chicken dance. Oh yeah, 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.760 that'd be good. So whenever you choose to go with 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:51.520 that's your next visit to the canyons um. You will 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.560 hear that echo come back to you. And it's basically 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:57.840 the same way that bats use, except instead of echoing 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.600 off of a canyon wall, it's echo off of a 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:05.000 mosquito or whatever. Yeah, when you make sound waves and 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.000 it travels and it hits that canyon, all it comes 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.720 back to you, right, And bets do the same thing, 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:12.960 but like you said, they're bouncing off of a mosquito 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:18.160 or um some other flighted bug that it eats, and 0:18:18.920 --> 0:18:23.000 just from standard echolocation, the bat can identify, oh, there's 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:25.480 a mosquito there, like all this other stuff, all the 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:27.600 all the other sound that I just put out there 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.359 came back at a much slower rate than this little 0:18:31.400 --> 0:18:34.840 spot did, and that spot is probably a mosquito. But 0:18:34.880 --> 0:18:39.800 it gets way more detailed than that. Basically, bat's echolocation 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:44.280 um is picked up and they're still not entirely certain, 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:46.600 like what kind of receptors the bat has. I mean, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:51.920 it's apparently all oral, but in the bat's brain it 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.800 creates what would be about equivalent to our visual field, 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.560 Like we see light bouncing off of stuff, and I 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:00.840 can tell roughly how far a way you are and 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.080 where you are, and what position you're facing or what 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.280 direction you're going, all through light waves in an instant 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:08.760 like we don't have to think about that, see it, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.240 and it's there. That's not calculating all of this, it's 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.399 just getting this Information's brain is automatically putting it together. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.439 And what it amounts again to like a video of 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:24.440 a visible video spatial field. Right, and so it knows 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.920 there's mosquito. It's about this big. It's about yea big. 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:30.800 It's traveling at this rate in this direction, and it's 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.600 like right below me. And it goes and gets the 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.440 mosquito all from rather than picking up light waves, creating 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.560 a sound wave and listening for uh, it's echo, that's echolocation. 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:46.720 It's amazing. So and also I should say, chuck, it's 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:50.359 really good that this is ultrasonic um because that some 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:52.600 of them go up to like a hundred and twenty decibels, 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.479 which is the equivalent of having a smoke detector like 0:19:56.400 --> 0:20:00.080 a couple inches from your ear. No, it shatter you 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.480 your life, all right, So let's talk about the different parts. Um. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:08.440 They will determine the distance of the mosquito by how 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:10.919 long it takes that noise to return. Uh. You and 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.479 I could do that with simple math. Uh. At a canyon, 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:17.639 we could actually calculate how far away that other wall 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:23.400 is with maths you know, uh location, They can determine 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:25.520 where it is and how big it is and what 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:31.000 direction is moving by literally like if the mosquito sound 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:33.720 bounces back and hits the right ear before the left ear, 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:37.639 you know it's going to be the right That's pretty easy. Um. 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.119 And then they have all these little complex folds within 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:43.080 the ear. It's not just like a big, dumb human 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:46.560 ear like we have, UM, lots of little folds that 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:50.560 will help indicate its vertical position as well. So if 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.200 they know it's coming from above, it'll sound different in 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:56.400 the ear than if it's below. And again to the bat, 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:59.360 all this is happening automatically. Its brain is putting all 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:04.639 this information together, and the bat knows there's a mosquito 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:08.040 right below. It's right. The size is determined by the 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:12.639 intensity of the echo. Something uh larger will have a 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.440 you know, more intense echo. So that's a big fat 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:19.080 mosquito that just feasted on Josh. So it's got lots 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.639 of delicious of blood, delicious blood and um. They also 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.920 used the Doppler effect, Chuck, to determine whether something is 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.439 going away from it or toward it. That's right. Remember 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.639 the Doppler effect. I've mentioned it before and got it 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.800 totally wrong. Let me try again. It's tough, You're ready. 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:41.000 So the wavelength of something is is set, it's determined, right, 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:46.480 But if something is coming near you, that wavelength has 0:21:46.520 --> 0:21:50.560 to be compressed in a shorter space. So therefore the 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:54.520 frequency the pitch increases. If something traveling away from you, 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:57.359 it has a lot more space between it and you 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:01.399 to fill up that same way length that same that 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:04.640 same yeah, the same wavelength, so the frequency the pitch 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:08.280 goes lower. That's the Doppler effect, right. I think it's 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.440 the Doppler Why do I have feeling you're gonna get email? 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:13.359 The people like, oh, Josh so close? Really practic, but 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.959 this one more thing. Um. So that is how they 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:23.960 determine distance, location, size, direction and direction. Amazing, and also 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:26.960 the actual sound that they're making when they echo. Locate 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:29.359 a lot of bats fly around with their mouths open, 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.320 and they look like they're just kind of slack jawed yokels. Well, 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:37.560 it turns out there making their echolocation squeaks the whole time. Again, 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:42.280 it's just ultrasonic, which is above the human threshold of hearing, right, 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:44.280 So it's squeaking the whole time. It's not just sitting 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:47.320 there with its mouth a gate. And some bats also, um, 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:50.679 especially the microbats that have the crazy nostrils that make 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:55.919 umi gag um, those actually will echolocate and generate the 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:59.280 sound through their nose. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:03.359 why they look that way. Mh. They're like little speakers. So, Chuck, 0:23:03.680 --> 0:23:07.119 I think we nailed like a location, don't you, and 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:10.600 the Doppler effect. Maybe put that one to bed um 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:13.879 and we will talk more about bats, including their little 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:37.800 families that they stay in right after this, Chuck. So 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:39.720 you talked a little bit about bats and how they 0:23:39.800 --> 0:23:42.720 love to huddle together, and it depends on the kind 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:47.960 of bat, the bloodthirsty bats, vampire bats. They actually tend 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:51.119 to roost in small little colonies or solitary lee. I 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:54.960 believe sometimes in like really hard to reach places like 0:23:55.000 --> 0:24:00.639 the Lost Boys. Yeah, yeah, like your fireplace. Yeah. I 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:03.720 had to battle a bat once in a fireplace. Yeah, yeah, 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.280 smoke it out. Uh No, I I didn't smoke it out. 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:12.560 I put on a leather coat over another coat, gloves, 0:24:13.080 --> 0:24:15.480 suit up before you do any like battle with nature, 0:24:16.800 --> 0:24:21.920 laundry baskett in a broom and I lost. But um, 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:26.919 they they they'll be by themselves usually. That's a good 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:31.679 giveaway that you have encountered a blood sucking bat. The 0:24:32.280 --> 0:24:39.399 hippie herbivore bats, those tend to congregate and enormous colonies, 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:45.360 some often composed of millions of bats. Millions. Yeah, pretty amazing. Yeah, 0:24:45.800 --> 0:24:49.400 um they we Well, you mentioned that they do all 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:54.640 this feeding and activity dawn, dusk and overnight because they 0:24:54.840 --> 0:24:59.080 will um get eaten by hawks and falcons and things 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:02.680 during the day uh and other predators too, So they 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:05.679 like to stay away during the day and um and 0:25:05.760 --> 0:25:09.800 hide out like you said, the caves, dark places, under bridges. 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:12.359 We'll talk about austin in a bit, right. Hawks don't 0:25:12.400 --> 0:25:17.000 typically go into caves, they hang out in trees. So 0:25:17.240 --> 0:25:20.840 bats go off and spend their days sleeping in caves 0:25:20.960 --> 0:25:23.720