Learn how dolphins use echolocation to detect any object
Learn how dolphins use echolocation to detect any object
How dolphins "see" with sound.
© World Science Festival (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
When a dolphin is producing sound, just like bats do, it produces a very narrow beam of sound. Much like this-- [DOLPHIN SOUNDS].
So what you're actually listening to are some of the dolphin echolocation signals. So the dolphin echolocation signals-- we might not be able to actually hear individual calls. When the dolphin is producing a call, it actually, just like the bat, can pull out individual pulses. But to us it sounds like buzzing-- bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt. But the dolphin, just like the bat, its world is sped up much more than ours so it can detect those individual pulses.
And also, just like a bat, it can focus its sound into a very narrow beam of sound or of light. So let's have that light beam now. All right. So if my lovely assistant over here is a dolphin producing his narrow beam of sound and I am a fish that the dolphin wants to echo-locate on, the dolphin produces a very narrow intense loud beam of sound. And this is really good if you're trying to detect a fish that's at a really far distance, because it gives you a very strong echo coming back to that dolphin.
But, if I'm a fish and the dolphin is getting closer to me and I want to suddenly try to escape the dolphin, I can move out of the beam of that narrow sound and suddenly the dolphin can't see me with its sound. So what does the dolphin do? Well the dolphin can actually change. It can widen its beam of sound as it gets closer and closer to the fish. So that no matter where I'm moving, if I'm trying to escape the dolphin, the dolphin can still see me with its sound. So this is how the dolphin is changing its sound, much like how bats can change their sounds as well.
So what you're actually listening to are some of the dolphin echolocation signals. So the dolphin echolocation signals-- we might not be able to actually hear individual calls. When the dolphin is producing a call, it actually, just like the bat, can pull out individual pulses. But to us it sounds like buzzing-- bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt. But the dolphin, just like the bat, its world is sped up much more than ours so it can detect those individual pulses.
And also, just like a bat, it can focus its sound into a very narrow beam of sound or of light. So let's have that light beam now. All right. So if my lovely assistant over here is a dolphin producing his narrow beam of sound and I am a fish that the dolphin wants to echo-locate on, the dolphin produces a very narrow intense loud beam of sound. And this is really good if you're trying to detect a fish that's at a really far distance, because it gives you a very strong echo coming back to that dolphin.
But, if I'm a fish and the dolphin is getting closer to me and I want to suddenly try to escape the dolphin, I can move out of the beam of that narrow sound and suddenly the dolphin can't see me with its sound. So what does the dolphin do? Well the dolphin can actually change. It can widen its beam of sound as it gets closer and closer to the fish. So that no matter where I'm moving, if I'm trying to escape the dolphin, the dolphin can still see me with its sound. So this is how the dolphin is changing its sound, much like how bats can change their sounds as well.