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  • The sonar beam pattern of a...
    Ghose, Kaushik; Moss, Cynthia F

    The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 114, Issue: 2
    Journal Article

    This paper describes measurements of the sonar beam pattern of flying echolocating bats, Eptesicus fuscus, performing various insect capture tasks in a large laboratory flight room. The beam pattern is deduced using the signal intensity across a linear array of microphones. The positions of the bat and insect prey are obtained by stereoscopic reconstruction from two camera views. Results are reported in the form of beam-pattern plots and estimated direction of the beam axis. The bat centers its beam axis on the selected target with a standard deviation (sigma) of 3 degrees. The experimental error is +/- 1.4 degrees. Trials conducted with two targets show that the bat consistently tracks one of the targets with its beam. These findings suggest that the axis of the bat sonar beam is a good index of selective tracking of targets, and in this respect is analogous to gaze in predominantly visual animals.