Alain Van Ryckegham, a professor at the School of Natural
Resources at Sir Sandford Fleming College in Lindsay, Ontario,
Canada, offers this explanation: Image: Bioinfo Animal Pictures
Archive Bats are a fascinating group of animals. They are one of
the few mammals that can use sound to navigate--a trick called
echolocation. Of the some 900 species of bats, more than half
rely on echolocation to detect obstacles in flight, find their
way into roosts and forage for food. Echolocation--the active
use of sonar (SOund Navigation And Ranging) along with special
morphological (physical features) and physiological adaptations
--allows bats to "see" with sound. Most bats produce
echolocation sounds by contracting their larynx (voice box). A
few species, though, click their tongues. These sounds are
generally emitted through the mouth, but Horseshoe bats
(Rhinolophidae) and Old World leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideridae)
emit their echolocation calls through their nostrils: there they
have basal fleshy horseshoe or leaf-lik