Scientists study echo-locating bats

COLLEGE PARK, Md., May 3 (UPI) -- University of Maryland scientists say echo-locating bats use a strategy to track and catch insects that's similar to a guided missile's tracking system.

Using infrared video cameras and an array of microphones, the UM research team discovered bats solve a rather complex geometrical problem to minimize the time it takes to intercept flying insects. The pursuit strategy is different from that reported in earlier studies of target pursuit in humans and other animals.

"This finding contributes to our growing discoveries about the bat's exquisite adaptive behaviors in response to rapidly changing echo 'pictures' of the world," said psychology professor Cynthia Moss, co-author of the study. "These adaptive behaviors include agile flight and head-aim control, as well as adjustments in the timing patterns of sonar vocalizations -- all finely coordinated to allow the bat to capture a free-flying insect in complete darkness and in the snap of a finger."

The research appears in the May issue of the journal PLoS Biology.