Eluding Bats

Eluding Bats
Bats hunt on the wing at night. they send out pulses of sound and listen for the echoes to locate their prey. this process is called echolocation. using it, a bat can pinpoint even tiny insects in flight.

Insects have developed escape behaviors to avoid echolocation. some moths can hear the high-pitched sounds that bats send out. A moth may fly in loops to avoid being detected. if a moth senses that a bat is close, it will simply fold its wings and drop from the sky.

Some moths go one step further and jam the bat’s signals. A moth does this by making sounds that are similar to the echoes that the bat is trying to hear. this can throw the bat off course just long enough to help the moth escape. scientists have recently discovered that some moths make sounds that warn bats not to eat them because they taste bad. Bats quickly learn to avoid these moths after a few taste tests. some species of moth that do not taste bad imitate the sounds of the foul-tasting ones, which tricks the bats into steering clear of them, too.