Summary
-
1.
Myotis myotis was trained to discriminate a plate with 8 mm deep holes from plates of stepwise varied hole depth. Depth differences in the two plates equal or larger than 1 mm were discriminated by the echolocating bat (Fig. 3).
-
2.
In a second series of experiments a plate with 4 mm deep holes was discriminated from other plates with hole depth differences equal or larger than 0.8 mm (Fig. 3).
-
3.
Echolocation sounds emitted during discrimination are of the same type as those used for catching prey in air or on the ground (Fig. 2). With increasing difficulty of the discrimination task the flight speed of the bat was reduced (Fig. 1).
-
4.
An incidental experiment disclosed the ability to discriminate surface structures with the resolution of roughness produced by 30 μm protrusions in the surface (Fig. 4).
-
5.
We conclude thatMyotis myotis discriminated hole depth differences by spectral, and not by time, cues in the echoes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Altes RA, Titlebaum EL (1970) Bat signals as optimally Doppler tolerant waveforms. J Acoust Soc Am 48:1014–1020
Beuter K (1980) A new concept of echo evaluation in the auditory system of bats. In: Busnel RG, Fish J (eds) Animal sonar systems. Plenum Press, New York, pp 747–762
Habersetzer J (1978) Ortungslaute der Mausohrfledermäuse (Myotis myotis) in verschiedenen Ortungssituationen. Masters thesis, University of Frankfurt
Harnischfeger G (1980) Brainstem units of echolocating bats coding binaural time differences in the microsecond-range. Naturwissenschaften 67:314–315
Johnson RA (1980) Energy spectrum analysis in echolocation. In: Busnel RG, Fish J (eds) Animal sonar systems. Plenum Press, New York, pp 673–693
Neuweiler G, Bruns V, Schuller G (1980) Ears adapted for the detection of motion, or how echolocating bats have exploited the capacities of the mammalian auditory system. J Acoust Soc Am 68:741–753
Simmons JA (1979) Perception of echo phase information in bat sonar. Science 204:1336–1338
Simmons JA (1980) The processing of sonar echoes by bats. In: Busnel RG, Fish J (eds) Animal sonar systems. Plenum Press, New York, pp 695–714
Simmons JA, Lavender WA, Lavender BA, Doroshow CA, Kiefer SW, Livingston R, Scallet AC (1974) Target structure and echo spectral discrimination by echolocating bats. Science 186:1130–1132
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Habersetzer, J., Vogler, B. Discrimination of surface-structured targets by the echolocating batMyotis myotis during flight. J. Comp. Physiol. 152, 275–282 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00611192
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00611192