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Echo-acoustic and optic flow interact in bats

Authors :
Lutz Wiegrebe
Herbert Peremans
Kathrin Kugler
Harald Luksch
Uwe Firzlaff
Dieter Vanderelst
Source :
Journal of Experimental Biology.
Publication Year :
2019
Publisher :
The Company of Biologists, 2019.

Abstract

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 in their efficiency to guide navigation. Echo-acoustic flow showed a surprisingly strong effect compared to optic flow. We thus demonstrate multimodal interaction between two far-ranging spatial senses, vision and echolocation, available in this combination almost exclusively for 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.

Details

ISSN :
14779145 and 00220949
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Experimental Biology
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........3e4b711a1b2efb24fab3aa2999896a43
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.195404