Bats Barbastella and mischievous hunting

In a paper published in Functional Ecology, scientists described how bats Barbastella barbastellus deceive prey . It turns out that when hunting, this mammal uses sounds that insects hardly hear.

Bats Barbastella barbastellus.(Photo: Arkive).

To navigate in space, bats use echolocation when they send high-frequency sounds and through reflected waves from obstacles, they determine the distance to the object. Some insects can catch those sounds and thus escape these night predators. But the mischievous bat Barbastella barbastellus has found a way to deceive its prey - the sounds it emits are much quieter than the sounds of other bats and as they approach the insect's prey The sound of their cries became quieter.

Strategy of bats Barbastella barbastellus can be considered 'crouching'. They gradually approach insects with sound about 10 times more quietly than other night hunters. Insects could not hear the hunter approaching. The closer the bat is to the prey, the more it barks, so the bat can fool even the insects that can catch the sounds emitted by the bat.

To track bat habits, scientists used prey as Noctua pronuba moths. They hung insects on a long rod and had a small microphone on top. So, from the position of the prey, scientists can hear the cry of the bat.

Bats recognize insects at a distance of 1.5m. When the distance is reduced to 1m, the volume generated by the bat is halved. Thus, the sound intensity when approaching is still the same as when the bat is far away and the insect has no chance of surviving.