Echolocation is when animals to use reflective sound to figure out the location of an object. Using echolocation, animals are able to navigate through pitch black environments and avoid obstacles. There are many different animals that use echolocation to navigate such as bats, dolphins, and whales. To use this tool animals make a sound. Once they make a sound, they listen for the sound waves that are going to bounce off of their surroundings. The tighter the sound wave, the more information animals are able to pick up on. The tighter sound waves provide a more detailed picture of what is around them, or prey that they are attempting to hunt.
Many people with visual impairment have adapted to the use of echolocation and have developed this tool. Daniel Kish, the blind mountain bike rider uses echolocation to illustrate the world around him. This is useful for people who are unable to see because they can get a better picture of what is happening around them. It is helpful because like Daniel Kish, people can enjoy activities that they may have been told they could never do.
Nicole, great post and very informative!
ReplyDeleteI love that you used dolphins as an example for echolocation.
One of the things I find interesting about echolocation in animals is that their sounds can reach miles away and if their frequency is loud enough, it has the ability to cause death to someone swimming in the water. But considering the distance animals like whales travel to and how deep they go, it makes sense that their frequency and how far it goes is how it is so that other animals are able to detect it.
ReplyDeleteHi Nicole!
ReplyDeleteI loved your post, it was really informative. I love learning about echolocation and it was interesting to learn about more how animals use echolocation to travel especially ocean animals like dolphins.