Predictive Tracking of Horizontally Moving Targets by the Fishing Bat, Noctilio Leporinus

Abstract

Bats hunting by sonar do not receive continuous target information; rather, the echo from each sonar pulse provides an acoustic bulletin by which they update their current perception of target range and position. This suggests that a hunting bat might keep track of moving prey by two general techniques. It might simply fly toward the last known position of the target (a non-predictive tracking strategy), or.t could somehow predict the target’s trajectory on the basis of known target parameters such as velocity, acceleration and position at.the time of the most recent echo (a predictive strategy).