Most bats use echolocation to navigate and hunt, but some use their ears for another trick: eavesdropping. "And then these frog-eating bats, for example, they are actually listening in on the mating calls of frogs that are much, much lower in frequency," says behavioral ecologist Rachel Page. But how the bats knew this eavesdropping trick was a mystery. So she set up and experiment with baby bats and a speaker. Have a question about the animals all around us? Email us at [email protected] — we'd love to hear from you!Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. In Austin, Texas, an hour or so before sunset, hundreds of people gather at this one bridge to wait for the moment when bats take flight. Every time I go to Austin, I make a point to visit the Congress Avenue Bridge, where these bats emerge to hunt all at once, clicking and squealing in a plume of wings.
Up to 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats take to the sky. This exodus can last 45 minutes, and it is hypnotizing.
I sort of fell into bats by chance, and really the reason I fell into them was because of Austin, because of that enormous urban colony of bats.
Rachel Page is a behavioral ecologist and a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. But back in the day, she was a grad student falling in love with bats for the first time because of this same colony in Texas.
I was mesmerized. How on earth are they not bumping into each other? How can they recognize their own echolocation call? How are they also communicating socially with one another?
There are over 1,400 different species of bats found throughout the world. And the way they navigate is hugely varied. Many use echolocation. That's where creatures emit a sound frequency that bounces off surfaces and tells them where they are in space. But echolocation is not the only sense that they use.
When it comes time to find and hunt their prey, bats will use their eyes, some rely heavily on smell, and some have evolved the ability to eavesdrop on their future meals.
And then these frog-eating bats, for example, they are actually listening in on the mating calls of frogs that are much, much lower in frequency. So they've had to evolve basically like another set of hearing sensitivities.
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