ప్రశ్న: గబ్బిలాలు రాత్రి పూటనే ఎందుకు సంచరిస్తాయి? పగలు కన్నా రాత్రి బాగా కనిపిస్తుందా?
How Bats can fly in night ?
Bat echolocation is very much similar to a SONAR and is a perceptual system where ultrasonic sounds are emitted specifically to produce echoes.
By comparing the outgoing pulse with the returning echoes, the brain and auditory nervous system can produce detailed images of the bat’s surroundings. This allows bats to detect, localize and even classify their prey in complete darkness.
To locate their prey as well as their way in which they are flying, bats use the echolocation technique. Echolocation is an advanced navigation technique in which a frequency which is too high pitched to hear by us as humans naturally produce their sounds are reflected in the environment, hitting various objects and returning to the bats as echoes. To form a mental map of its surroundings, these echoes enable the bats.
On the other hand noise from the rain, making it harder for the bat to form a picture of its surroundings, wind and snow disturbs the echo signals. Bats are more careful of their movements in the dark than at the day and they are always in the ready position to change their direction when they encounter any danger coming their way. The bat uses its visual ability to fly and navigate their way during the day time, whereas, at the dark times bats continuously rise and dip in curved flight trajectories. As they love to feed on the moths which are highly active in the dark and also the mosquitoes also, so, therefore the bats usually fly in the dark.
