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Show Bats Use 'Radar' to Find Their Way About in Dark Recent experiments by scientists scien-tists show that bats have for ages been using the same basic principle prin-ciple as that used in radar. The scientists plugged the creatures' ears, and the flying mammals flew into cords stretched across a dark room. Mere blinding of the creatures ! had failed to keep them from miss-jtng miss-jtng the cords. The scientists taped the bats' mouths shut. Again they hit the cords. Sound was the answer. Further . tests showed that the bats emit sounds pitched above human hearing. hear-ing. These noises are reflected from obstacles in the same way a short wave beam is reflected from an airplane or ship in radio location. loca-tion. With their ears plugged, the bats couldn't hear the sounds and detect the cords. |