Bats!

This is coolbert:

Bats that use echo location to find prey have to be considered to one of the most remarkable creatures in the animal kingdom.

And there is a striking resemblance to the way a bat, using echo location, finds prey, and the way that a modern military airforce fighter/interceptor aircraft locates and intruder aircraft.

It has been known for a long time that bats use echo location to find airborne prey. A bat, using echo location, can find, intercept, and kill a flying insect. A means for the bat to find food.

Recent research has demonstrated just how highly developed the bat is in this regard.

When SEARCHING for prey, bats emit chirps at the rate of ten chirps per second. The bat is able to analyze the returned echoes, and can detect prey this way.

When prey is FOUND, the bat then increases the number of chirps it emits to a rate of one hundred fifty per second!! Magnitudes higher number of chirps. For the purpose of further RESOLVING the prey. Determining the exact location, speed, and direction of the airborne prey. Providing all the info the bat needs on a constantly updated basis. Info needed by the bat to make a successful intercept and kill.

This greater RESOLUTION also allows the bat to determine the TYPE of prey it has detected. Moths can be differentiated from other insects and are the preferred prey for the bat. Moths have a very high fat content. A bat gets the biggest bang for the buck by intercepting, killing, and eating moths. The most calories are gained with the least amount of energy by eating moths.

A modern military fighter/interceptor aircraft carrying two radars on board performs a mission in a manner analogous to a bat seeking prey!!

One radar is the target acquisition [TA]. This radar allows the pilot to LOCATE, when SEARCHING for, an intruder aircraft. Intruders CAN be located at distances FAR exceeding the visual range of the pilot. The eyeball is simply NOT even as adequate as a modern TA radar. Allows for detection during inclement weather or hours of darkness.

The second radar on board a modern military fighter/interceptor aircraft is the fire control [FC] radar. Turned on when the pilot DETECTS the intruder aircraft. The intruder that has become the TARGET. This FC radar operates at a HIGHER frequency than does the TA radar. This higher frequency allows for better RESOLUTION of the intruder target. Allows the pilot of the fighter/interceptor to determine with much greater exactness the location, direction, and speed of the intruder. Allows the pilot of the fighter/interceptor to intercept the intruder, aim weapons, and conclude the mission successfully by downing the intruder.

With the fighter/interceptor, as with the bat, DETECTION first, then RESOLUTION, then intercept, then success!!

Another remarkable bat which uses echo location to find prey is the fish eating bat of the tropics.

Flying low over the water [perhaps utilizing ground effect for additional lift??], the fish eating bat emits a constant series of chirps in the SEARCH for prey [fish]. Return echoes are analyzed to DETECT a fish breaking the surface of the water. Breaking the surface of the water in an effort to seize and eat an insect resting or hovering just above the water. Flying to the approximate location where a fish breaking the water has been DETECTED, the fish eating bat, with an astonishing degree of regularity, dips it talons into the water, most of the time snaring a fish for food!!

[It should be noted that the bat DOES NOT dip it's talons into the water WHERE the fish broke the water. The bat dips it's talons at a location as determined by returned, processed echoes. Parameters [as determined by the returned echoes] of where the fish broke the water, the angle with which the fish broke the water, the time for the bat to arrive on the approximate scene, all this is taken into account by the bat's CPU [central processing unit] when determining where the fish will be WHEN THE BAT ARRIVES AT THE APPROXIMATE LOCATION, NOT WHERE THE FISH WAS WHEN IT ORIGINALLY BROKE THE WATER!! REMARKABLE!!]

[For a long time, it was thought that the fish eating bat did NOT use echo location. It was thought that the fish eating bat merely trolled the water with it's talons, FEELING for fish. This IS NOT SO!!]

During World War Two [WW2], British long range bomber aircraft seeking to LOCATE German submarines carried out missions in a manner analogous to the fish eating bat seeking prey!!

German submarines in the early part of WW2 found haven from British long range bomber aircraft during hours of darkness. The British aircraft did NOT possess radar with sufficient RESOLUTION to pick out surfaced German submarines from the background clutter of the ocean [mostly from wave action]. German submarines were able to operate on the surface during hours of darkness relatively impervious to DETECTION.

With the advent of what was called centimeter radar, utilizing the traveling wave tube [TWT], British aircraft skimming just above the ocean's surface were able to RESOLVE German submarines from the background clutter. DETECTION of German submarines was NOW possible.

In addition.

A Leigh light, a specially adapted searchlight, could then be used by the aircraft's crew to visually illuminate the surfaced and detected German submarine from a distance [generally, one mile]. At this point, now in the sights of the surface skimming British bomber aircraft, was sub was as good as a goner. Impunity from attack was no longer available to German submarines running on the surface at night!!

Final comment.

Bats are part of the mammalian family.

Meaning that the nervous system of a bat, as with almost all mammals, is controlled by the brain. A large percentage of the brain is dedicated for this purpose only. The bat, being a small animal, DOES have a very small brain. And yet, the bat has this extraordinary CPU that works with the chirping system for echo location. All of that capability fitting into such a small package.

Again, remarkable how well it works. Bats existed well before man came on the scene. And bats have in them the processes that man has taken millennium to develop. Develop NOT even into a system that works as well as the one the bat has!!

coolbert.