Smooth Surfaces Are a Bat Blind Spot

Glass and metal surfaces temporarily "blind" a bat by bouncing sound waves in the wrong direction, which sometimes results in a collision.

This video was reproduced with permission and was first published on September 7, 2017. It is a Nature Video production.

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Researchers have figured out why bats go bump in the night. Echolocation usually allows bats to sense their environments in great detail, but it’s not foolproof. Smooth surfaces act like acoustic mirrors and can appear invisible to bats from certain angles. This sometimes leads to some unfortunate collisions. Read more at https://www.nature.com/news/1.22583

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