Echolocation explanation template:

This week we are learning about some animals that use echolocation to find their way around them and also help them hunt. Echolocation is all about sounds and what we are learning this term.

Animals like bats, rats, whales, dolphins and porpoises can’t really see will so they use echolocation to see the world around them and to help them hunt for food. Bats have poor eyesight, they rely on their senses and they hunt at night, they use echolocation to not hit into an object  and other objects. They sleep at day time and hunt at night when they smell something like bugs they use echolocation. Then the vibration that is sent, if it comes back to the bat, it will know that there is something in front of them or around them.

Bats are really good at using echolocation because they have really big ears that they can rely

on to help guide them through the forest. They use it also for hunting for their food and for going to the river and getting something to drink. However echolocation calls are not always species specific and some bats overlap in the type of calls they use so recordings of echolocation calls cannot be used to identify all bats and some other animals. Lots of animals that have really poor eyesight they often use echolocation all the time to help them for hunt and to not hit into an objects.

You can try yelling in a cave and see if you can hear your echo sending the sound back to you.

If the animals can’t use echolocation that will be sad because there are some animals that have really poor eyesight. If they couldn’t use echolocation they can’t hunt for their food and when they try to find their way they can hit into objects. Thats why the animals need to use echolocation to find their way and to help them look for their food.