Bats Have Unique Superfast Squeak Muscles to Make Superfast Echolocation Calls
The only mammals that can fly are also the only mammals with a larynx that flexes at ludicrous speed, a new study shows. As bats flip and whirl toward their prey, they chirp at an accelerating rate, increasing their echolocating calls to 160-190 chirps per second. This is possible because their laryngeal muscles can contract up to 200 times per second, researchers say. Bats start out with shorter-rate chirps, increasing their frequency as they approach their quarry and culminating in a superfast pulse called the terminal buzz. Watch the video below to see what this sounds like. Coen Elemans and John Ratcliffe at the University of Southern Denmark set out to study how bats produce this buzz. They also wanted to determine whether the upper buzz limit is a function of how quickly the bats can hear the return signals that bounce off their prey, or whether it's because of...