Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats
Echolocating bats are known to fly and forage in complete darkness, using the echoes of their actively emitted calls to navigate and to detect prey. However, under dim light conditions many bats can also rely on vision. Many flying animals have been shown to navigate by optic flow information and, r...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:jexbio:222/6/jeb195404 2023-05-15T18:33:30+02:00 Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats Kugler, Kathrin Luksch, Harald Peremans, Herbert Vanderelst, Dieter Wiegrebe, Lutz Firzlaff, Uwe 2019-03-21 03:46:56.0 text/html http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/222/6/jeb195404 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404 en eng The Company of Biologists Ltd http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/222/6/jeb195404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404 Copyright (C) 2019, Company of Biologists RESEARCH ARTICLE TEXT 2019 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404 2019-10-03T17:10:02Z Echolocating bats are known to fly and forage in complete darkness, using the echoes of their actively emitted calls to navigate and to detect prey. However, under dim light conditions many bats can also rely on vision. Many flying animals have been shown to navigate by optic flow information and, recently, bats were shown to exploit echo-acoustic flow to navigate through dark habitats. Here, we show for the bat Phyllostomus discolor that, in lighted habitats where self-motion-induced optic flow is strong, optic and echo-acoustic flow interact to guide navigation. Echo-acoustic flow showed a surprisingly strong effect compared with optic flow. We thus demonstrate multimodal interaction between two far-ranging spatial senses, vision and echolocation, available in this combination almost exclusively in bats and toothed whales. Our results highlight the importance of merging information from different sensory systems in a sensory-specialist animal to successfully navigate and hunt under difficult conditions. Text toothed whales HighWire Press (Stanford University) Journal of Experimental Biology |
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Open Polar |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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fthighwire |
language |
English |
topic |
RESEARCH ARTICLE |
spellingShingle |
RESEARCH ARTICLE Kugler, Kathrin Luksch, Harald Peremans, Herbert Vanderelst, Dieter Wiegrebe, Lutz Firzlaff, Uwe Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
topic_facet |
RESEARCH ARTICLE |
description |
Echolocating bats are known to fly and forage in complete darkness, using the echoes of their actively emitted calls to navigate and to detect prey. However, under dim light conditions many bats can also rely on vision. Many flying animals have been shown to navigate by optic flow information and, recently, bats were shown to exploit echo-acoustic flow to navigate through dark habitats. Here, we show for the bat Phyllostomus discolor that, in lighted habitats where self-motion-induced optic flow is strong, optic and echo-acoustic flow interact to guide navigation. Echo-acoustic flow showed a surprisingly strong effect compared with optic flow. We thus demonstrate multimodal interaction between two far-ranging spatial senses, vision and echolocation, available in this combination almost exclusively in bats and toothed whales. Our results highlight the importance of merging information from different sensory systems in a sensory-specialist animal to successfully navigate and hunt under difficult conditions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kugler, Kathrin Luksch, Harald Peremans, Herbert Vanderelst, Dieter Wiegrebe, Lutz Firzlaff, Uwe |
author_facet |
Kugler, Kathrin Luksch, Harald Peremans, Herbert Vanderelst, Dieter Wiegrebe, Lutz Firzlaff, Uwe |
author_sort |
Kugler, Kathrin |
title |
Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
title_short |
Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
title_full |
Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
title_fullStr |
Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
title_sort |
optic and echo-acoustic flow interact in bats |
publisher |
The Company of Biologists Ltd |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/222/6/jeb195404 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404 |
genre |
toothed whales |
genre_facet |
toothed whales |
op_relation |
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/short/222/6/jeb195404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2019, Company of Biologists |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404 |
container_title |
Journal of Experimental Biology |
_version_ |
1766218116592828416 |