Bats use echolocation to seek out their insect prey and to negotiate their surroundings; but exactly how they use the returning echoes to navigate was not well understood till recently. To achieve a clearer picture of how echoes are used to recognise places and navigate them, scientists must know the sensorial input encountered by flying bats.
Only a limited number of studies have collected and analysed the echoes generated by prey and vegetation. However, no data existed on the statistics of the echoes generated by complex environments and encountered by bats during flight. Therefore, scientists knew what the echo from a plant looked like, but not how the echo from a row of vegetation changed as the bat flies past it.
Further information: Getting a clearer picture of how bats use echolocation