Printer Friendly
Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary
3,898,028,131 visitors served.
forum Join the Word of the Day Mailing List For webmasters
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

Echolocation
(redirected from Echolocating)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.

echolocation

Physiological process for locating distant or invisible objects (such as prey) by emitting sound waves that are reflected back to the emitter by the objects. Echolocation is used by an animal to orient itself, avoid obstacles, find food, and interact socially. Most bats employ echolocation, as do most, if not all, toothed whales (but apparently no baleen whales), a few shrews, and two kinds of birds (oilbirds and certain cave swiftlets). Echolocation pulses consist of short bursts of sound at frequencies ranging from about 1,000 Hz in birds to at least 200,000 Hz in whales. Bats use frequencies from about 30,000 to about 120,000 Hz.


echolocation
determination of the position of an object by measuring the time taken for an echo to return from it and its direction

echolocation [′ek·ō·lō‚kā·shən]
(biophysics)
An animal's use of sound reflections to localize objects and to orient in the environment.

Echolocation 

the perception of reflected sound waves, usually high-frequency, by certain animals, which emit them to detect objects in space, such as prey or obstacles, and determine their properties and dimensions. Echolocation is one of the means by which animals orient themselves in space. It is developed in bats and dolphins and has been discovered in shrews, a number of species of seals, and birds, including oilbirds and salanganes.

In dolphins and bats, echolocation is based on the emission of ultrasonic impulses with frequencies of as high as 130–200 kilo-hertz (kHz) and duration of signals usually from 0.2 to 4–5 milliseconds, sometimes more. In birds that live in dark caves, such as oilbirds and salanganes, it is used for orientation in the dark; they emit low-frequency signals of 7–4 kHz. Dolphins and bats use echolocation not only to determine their general orientation, but also to determine the spatial position of an object and its dimensions. In a number of cases echolocation even enables them to recognize the appearance of an object and therefore often serves as an important means of searching out and capturing food.

REFERENCE

Airapet’iants, E. Sh., and A. I. Konstantinov. Ekholokatsiia v prirode, 2nd ed. Leningrad, 1974.

G. N. SIMKIN



Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content.
?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Feedback
Mentioned in?  References in periodicals archive?   Encyclopedia browser?   Full browser?
No references found
 
Also, Natalia Sidorovskaia with her colleagues at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have noted that whales change the intervals between these echolocating clicks in a way that seems to prevent cluttering the echoes from these calls.
The skeleton lacks all three bony features of the ear and throat that all of today's echolocating bats possess.
The scientists have received funding from the Office of Naval Research to do brain imaging work on echolocating dolphins to discover what parts of the brain are actively engaged in processing the echoes.
 
 
 
Encyclopedia
?

Terms of Use | Privacy policy | Feedback | Advertise with Us | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc.
Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.