Investigation of the long-distance acoustical navigation algorithm of echolocating bats in the wild

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K18078
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Measurement engineering
• Research Institution: Doshisha University
• Principal Investigator: Fujioka Emyo 同志社大学, 研究開発推進機構, 特別研究員 (00722266)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 生物ソナー / コウモリ / 音響センシング / バイオロギング / 数理モデル / ナビゲーション / 採餌行動 / 探索行動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We applied bio-logging study to acoustical navigation of echolocating bats in the wild, and examined their flight and echolocation strategies for navigation and target search in the large-scale space. As a result, we established experimental protocol for the bio-logging research for bats and suggested that the bats conducted route-following strategy using sonar for the large-scale navigation. Additionally, the bats occasionally returned to the position where they stayed, suggesting that they conducted the foray search to efficiently search target prey items. On the other hand, we succeeded to measure sonar sounds emitted by bats using the microphone array system at the stay-site that was identified by the GPS data-logging experiment. The results show that the bats emitted ultrasounds and search target prey at the stay-site.

Free Research Field

生物音響工学