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Greater Horseshoe Bats Learn to Discriminate Simulated Echoes of Insects Fluttering with Different Wingbeat Rates

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Animal Sonar

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Science ((NSSA,volume 156))

Abstract

If a cf-fm bat echolocates a fluttering insect, the cf-portion of the returning echo contains distinct amplitude and frequency modulations. A noteworthy feature of such an insect echo is the so called acoustical glint (Schnitzler et al. 1983), represented by a sudden amplitude peak and spectral broadening. A glint is produced each time an insect wing stands perpendicular to the impinging sound waves. Because there is usually one glint per wingbeat, the glint frequency encodes the wingbeat rate of the insect. In addition to information about wingbeat rate, the echoes of fluttering insects also contain information about the angular orientation of the insect, the insect’s size and other information characterizing the insect species (Kober, this conference).

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© 1988 Plenum Press, New York

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von der Emde, G. (1988). Greater Horseshoe Bats Learn to Discriminate Simulated Echoes of Insects Fluttering with Different Wingbeat Rates. In: Nachtigall, P.E., Moore, P.W.B. (eds) Animal Sonar. NATO ASI Science, vol 156. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7493-0_50

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-7493-0_50

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-7495-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-7493-0

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