Whose discovery revealed that echolocation helps bats navigate and hunt in the dark?
Quick Answer
Donald R. Griffin’s. In the 1930s, he and Robert Galambos helped establish that bats use ultrasound to orient themselves and find prey.
The Full Story
Donald Griffin, often called the founder of animal sensory ecology, played a central role in proving that bats use echolocation. In 1938, Griffin and Robert Galambos demonstrated that bats emitted high-pitched sounds beyond human hearing and responded to the returning echoes. This helped explain how bats can fly and hunt in complete darkness. Griffin’s work transformed ideas about animal communication and perception, and bat echolocation is now one of biology’s best-known examples of natural sonar.
Key Facts
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Suggested video title for this topic:
"How bats “see” with sound"
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