Japanese biologists have studied the hunting tactics of large horseshoe crabs and how these subtleties work together to create a strategy. It turns out that bats can catch up with their prey faster by controlling their speed and echolocation similar to rockets.

For a successful hunt, hunters do not need speed or strength; They need to keep an eye on their prey and watch their movements closely. Many mammals have evolved keen vision for this, but some animals rely on other senses as well. For example, Nile elephants, black knives, and other weakly electric fish can find food by analyzing electrical impulses in the environment.

Bats behave differently: they navigate in space and track their prey using echolocation. Their wingtips emit short ultrasonic signals that are reflected off surfaces and back to the mice, indicating the target’s location. The hunting precision of these animals shows that they have many effective tactics for hunting and tracking their prey.

Three Japanese biologists decided to find out what tactics bats use when hunting while flying and what kind of strategy these tricks form. Scientists analyzed data on ultrasonic pulses and videos of large horseshoe crabs catching butterflies (Rhinolophus nippon). To reconstruct the prey in detail, the researchers recorded the three-dimensional position of the predator and prey and the latency of the sound signals. The results of the scientific study are published in the journal. Current Biology.

In addition to the already known ways of hunting in flight (bats control the direction, speed, angular range and echolocation direction of their movements), bats adjusted the angle of the sound pulse according to the hypothetical location of the victim. Predators also predicted the location of prey and adjusted their flights to catch up with it in advance. It was previously believed that mice only chase prey.

Then the researchers tested the effectiveness (speed dependence of errors) of all tactics in hunting bats, taking into account the simulation. The probability of a false target was higher when the mice changed direction and accelerated. Therefore, as biologists discovered, by controlling flight and echolocation, fixing their speed and research direction, animals increased hunting efficiency.

In other words, bats develop a prey tracking strategy by combining various flight and echolocation tactics. According to experts, predators predict the victim’s location in advance, first of all, they catch up with it faster, and secondly, they deceive by not revealing their location. Interestingly, even if one of the tactics did not work, hunting accuracy still did not decrease.

The authors of the article also noted that active radar homing missiles operate according to a similar multifunctional scheme, tracking the target, estimating its position and adjusting its angular speed.