Method used by several animal species to determine location using sound
A depiction of the ultrasound signals emitted by a bat, and the echo from a nearby object
Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is a biological sonar used by several animal species.
Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment
and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects. Echolocation is used for navigation, foraging, and hunting in various environments.
Echolocating animals include mammals, most notably Laurasiatheria, especially odontocetes (toothed whales) and some bat species, and also, using simpler forms, species in other groups such as shrews. A few bird species also echolocate, including two cave-dwelling bird groups, the so-called cave swiftlets in the genus Aerodramus (formerly Collocalia) and the unrelated oilbirdSteatornis caripensis.[1][2][3][4]
^Teeling EC, Jones G, Rossiter SJ (2016). "Phylogeny, Genes, and Hearing: Implications for the Evolution of Echolocation in Bats". In Fenton MB, Grinnell AD, Popper AN, Fay RN (eds.). Bat Bioacoustics. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research. Vol. 54. New York: Springer. pp. 25–54. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-3527-7_2. ISBN9781493935277.