Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week!

I have some exciting batty news! Scientists have figured out a way to study the echolocation of bats. By studying bat echolocation, they are learning about how bats hunt for food. Researchers created a new bat tracking tag that is modeled after tags used to research aquatic animals like porpoises. The new tag is lightweight and perfectly sized for a bat.

Bat researchers have already started using the sensor to test how bats pick and choose a target, how they fly up to their prey, and how they catch their prey! In order to figure out how the bats fly up to their prey the researchers used a trained European noctule bat with a tag glued to its back. The bat flew to a ball hanging in the center of a room, while the tag sent information about the flight back to the scientists. The second test used four big brown bats that were trained to catch worms hanging from the ceiling! The bats flew up and caught the prey while the researchers looked at how the bats hunted. The tag recorded information from each bat’s flight on things such as the calls that they sent out and the echoes they received.

If you want to read more about these new sensor tags, you can do so here.