ShmoopTube

00:04

[Dino and Coop singing]

00:13

Picture it: you're creeping through your house, late at night. [Boy creeping looking excited]

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Everyone is asleep.

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You know what that means… it's the perfect time for you to grab a late-night snack. [Plate with a slice of pizza on it with light coming from it]

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You're being super stealthy…you're basically a CIA agent…the goal is in sight…when [Boy wearing sun glasses like a secret agent]

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suddenly…

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Ah, the lone Lego piece. [Boy stands on a Lego piece and his sunglasses fall off]

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Ruins operation cold pizza every time. [His parents walk in to kitchen and switch the lights on]

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You know what never runs into that problem?

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Bats.

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And not just because they don't leave Legos lying around. [A bat flies in and takes the slice of pizza]

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It's all thanks to a little something called echolocation. [Echo waves coming from the bat]

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To figure out what echolocation is, let's take a look at the word itself.

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We can break it down into two parts: echo, and location. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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That's no accident.

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Echolocation is the use of sounds to find objects. [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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So how does it work?

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Pretty easily, actually!

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An animal emits a sound, and if the sound wave hits something… [The sound wave bounces off a tree]

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…then it bounces back to the animal, and they know that something's there. [The bat flies in the other direction]

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So echolocation is literally using echoes to find locations. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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The word's almost too perfect.

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We can see how echolocation works with bats.

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Although bats aren't actually blind, they do rely on echolocation instead of their vision [Bat walking along the pavement with a stick and dark glasses]

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to get all sorts of useful information.

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For one thing, they use it to find prey. [Insect moving on the floor]

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Lots of bats hunt insects, and even though insects are pretty small, they're big enough

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to hit with sound waves. [A bat flies in and picks up the insect]

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Which is good for the bat, bad for the insect.

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…Unless the insect likes being devoured whole. [Insect says this is greatest day of my life as he is carried away by the bat]

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Bats also use echolocation to find things they aren't going to devour, like obstacles. [Bat emitting sound waves]

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The audio information a bat gets from, say, a tree trunk is way different from what it

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gets from an insect…

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…so the bat will know to fly the other way…

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…instead of going for the kill. [Bat swoops down]

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Knocking yourself unconscious against a tree doesn't really fill up your belly. [Bat hits the tree and falls to the ground]

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Echolocation is also useful for finding predators.

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Although bats reign supreme over the insects…

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…they do have to watch out for hawks and owls.

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Sorry, not "watch out" for them…echolocate out for them. [An owl flies into the cave and the bat flies away]

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Even though bats are pretty famous for their echolocation skills, they don't have a monopoly [Bat carrying a metal case labelled echolocation]

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on echolocation in the animal world.

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Lots of marine mammals, like dolphins, sperm whales, and killer whales use echolocation, [Bat drops the case into the ocean]

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too.

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And since they happen to live underwater, instead of emitting sounds through the air,

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they emit them through…you guessed it…the water.

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This underwater echolocation even has a fancy name: sonar. [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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Sounds a lot better than "Super wet echolocation."

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Oh, and uh…we wouldn't recommend trying out echolocation while you're driving. [Man blasting the horn on his car]

02:22

Probably not a great idea…

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