Ever heard the idiom ‘as blind as a bat’? It is commonly utilised to denote a person with poor eyesight.
On the contrary, bats aren’t blind. Most of them can see really well, even in dim light. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]As an example, most fruit eating bats possess large, bulging eyes that aid them to find their way and locate food via sight. However, other bats, especially those that hunt for insects possess poor eyesight during night.
To compensate for this disadvantage, these bats possess supersensitive ears and utilise a remarkable high frequency system called echolocation, the use of sound waves to determine where objects are in space.
These nocturnal creatures are able to emit streams of high pitched sounds via nose or mouth that are beyond the human range. These signals are reflected back by nearby objects in the form of echoes. The bat then determines the size, shape, location and texture of objects in its environment by ‘reading’ these echoes via its supersensitive ears.
In certain cases, some bats utilise this feature to distinguish between edible and non-edible insects.
The high pitched sounds emitted by bats can only be heard by humans via utilisation of a specific instrument known as the ‘bat detector’.
[/ihc-hide-content]
