Page 76 - Design in Nature

CHAPTER 3

Communication

and Target

Location Systems

ECHOLOCATION OF BATS
Bats are very interesting creatures. The most intriguing of their abilities
is their extraordinary faculty of navigation.
The echolocative ability of bats was discovered through a series of
experiments conducted by scientists. Let us take a closer look at these
experiments in order to unveil the extraordinary design of these creatures: 26
In the first of these experiments, a bat was left in a completely dark
room. On one corner of the same room, a fly was placed as a prey for the bat.
From then on, everything taking place in the
room was monitored with night vision
cameras. As the fly started to take into
the air, the bat, from the other
corner of the room, swiftly
moved directly to where the fly
was and captured it.
Through this experiment, it
was concluded that the
bats had a very sharp
sense of perception
even in complete
darkness. However,