AI Article Synopsis
- Toothed whales utilize sonar for hunting by adjusting sound intensity and click rates, but their narrow acoustic field of view remains stable, potentially allowing prey to escape at close range.
- New research demonstrates that harbour porpoises can expand their sonar beam while pursuing prey, unlike bats, and can adjust this beamwidth during the attack.
- This adaptability is hypothesized to be managed by the melon, enabling the whales to respond to complex environments, suggesting that flexible beamwidth has played a critical role in the evolution of echolocation in both whales and bats.
Article Abstract
Toothed whales use sonar to detect, locate, and track prey. They adjust emitted sound intensity, auditory sensitivity and click rate to target range, and terminate prey pursuits with high-repetition-rate, low-intensity buzzes. However, their narrow acoustic field of view (FOV) is considered stable throughout target approach, which could facilitate prey escape at close-range. Here, we show that, like some bats, harbour porpoises can broaden their biosonar beam during the terminal phase of attack but, unlike bats, maintain the ability to change beamwidth within this phase. Based on video, MRI, and acoustic-tag recordings, we propose this flexibility is modulated by the melon and implemented to accommodate dynamic spatial relationships with prey and acoustic complexity of surroundings. Despite independent evolution and different means of sound generation and transmission, whales and bats adaptively change their FOV, suggesting that beamwidth flexibility has been an important driver in the evolution of echolocation for prey tracking.
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|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413254 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.05651 | DOI Listing |
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