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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Baby bats try out their ‘sonar’ just after birth

Fruit-bat pups can send short echolocation clicks — and sense those of others — from day zero.
Egyptian fruit bats

A young Egyptian fruit bat’s navigation clicks sound like those of an adult by the time the pup is 7–8 weeks old, the age of first flight. Credit: Philippe Clement/Nature Picture Library

Move over, early bloomers: baby bats might be the most precocious younglings of the animal kingdom. Researchers have found that, from day zero, newborn Egyptian fruit bats can use the built-in sonar that allows the creatures to navigate in total darkness1.

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Nature 599, 11 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02940-6

References

  1. Smarsh, G. C., Tarnovsky, Y. & Yovel, Y. Proc. R. Soc. B https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1714 (2021).

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