Sonar Tracking of Moving Targets by Echolocating Bats

飞行蝙蝠使用声纳（回声定位）来跟踪和拦截移动的猎物。在食鱼蝙蝠的情况下，出现了一个特别有趣的问题，因为猎物只有在水面上时才能被声纳跟踪；在其他时候，它对声纳来说是“看不见的”。这是一个研究食鱼蝙蝠在追踪和拦截实验者控制下的目标时的行为的项目。目标的速度，加速度和运动路径将会变化，它在水面上花费的时间也会变化。实验人员将测量蝙蝠的飞行路线和头部目标，它的脚在试图捕捉消失在水面下的猎物时，会将脚放在哪里，以及它分辨穿越其路径的目标速度差异的能力。这项研究还将探讨学习在蝙蝠追踪行为发展中的作用。这个项目很重要，原因有很多。动物如何使用声纳获取信息，以及它们如何处理这些信息来拦截移动和周期性消失的目标，这一普遍问题对于理解动物行为的基本方面，特别是蝙蝠和海洋哺乳动物的行为，具有重要意义。它还提供了改进人造声纳跟踪设备的可能性。

Flying bats use sonar (echolocation) to track and intercept moving prey. A particularly interesting problem is presented in the case of fish-eating bats because the prey can only be tracked by sonar when at the surface of the water; at other times it is "invisible" to sonar. This is a project in which the behavior of a fish-eating bat will be investigated as it tracks and intercepts a target that is under the control of the experimenter. The target's velocity, acceleration and path of movement will be varied, as will the amount of time it spends at the water surface. The experimenter will measure the flight path and head aim of the bat, where it dips its feet in attempting to capture prey that has disappeared beneath the surface, and its ability to resolve differences in velocity of targets moving across its path. The study will also address the role of learning in the bat's development of tracking behavior. The project is important for a number of reasons. The general issue of how animals use sonar for obtaining information and how they process that information to intercept moving and periodically disappearing targets is significant to understanding basic aspects of animal behavior, particularly of bats and marine mammals. It also offers the possibility of suggesting improvements in man-made sonar tracking devices.