Not Communication

Some people seem to think that biosonar (echolocation) is a mysterious method that bats / dolphins use to communicate with each other. This is not the case.

No, biosonar is a system that animals use to form images of their environment, just as we use the visual system to form images. Execute the 'bat demo' and the 'dolphin demo' below, to see illustrations of this.

Links between biosonar and communication

- An animal using biosonar needs to send out a sonar signal to gain information from the reflections. So you could say that the animal is "communicating with itself, about its environment".

- Biosonar signals sometimes have a secondary, unintentional function of communication: bats can "eavesdrop" on the sonar activity of other bats. For example, the eavesdropping bat could be attracted to a place where it hears other bats emitting a lot of sonar signals, because they sound like they are hunting successfully. The eavesdropping bat could then join in the feeding.