Sensation and Perception

Echolocation

How awesome is it that some animals can use a form of navigation without having to see?

This navigation is called echolocation, and it is defined as sound reflected off of objects.

Echolocation is used by dolphins, whales, bats, and humans are even learning how to do it to get around.

A person who has lost their sight or even someone who hasn't can learn to use echolocation to navigate their way through life as long as the person has normal hearing. The person will use clicks of the tongue, snaps of fingers, or stomps of the feet to the ground to make the desired sound. The mouth clicks are the most effective. Humans who use echolocation can use it to detect obstacles near them and then with more practice and training they are able to detect the distance, shape, material, motion, and the size of what is near them.

I chose this topic and it interested me because it is something that is special to some animals like bats and whales. Almost anything that deals with animals will interest me and I will want to learn about the topic. Bats are not blind even though the common saying, "blind as a bat" says otherwise. Bats are nocturnal and they do most of their flying and hunting at night so like humans they cannot see in the dark. They make a really high pitched noise that bounces off of the bug or the obstacle in front of them so that they can either catch it or not fly into something. When the sounds reach back to them they are able to map things in their vicinity.

Bailey, the beluga whale from the Pixar movie Finding Dory, uses echolocation throughout the movie to help his fishy friends. He is in the aquarium because he bumped his head and his echolocation wasn't working anymore. Towards the end of the movie he has to find a way to get over his issue and use his echolocation to find Dory so that she can return to the ocean. 

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/using-sound-to-get-around