Out of the bat lab and into the field: Sensorimotor strategies of bats at high-speed flight

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The experiments performed by James Simmons helped pave the way for our understanding of bat biosonar processing and “what it’s like to be a bat.” By conducting experiments with trained bats, he discovered key information on how bats use temporal and spectral cues in their echoes to perceive their environment. After spending my postdoc with Dr. Simmons in his lab, he encouraged me to venture to the field to explore the sonar behavior of bats in their natural environment. This talk will summarize my recent work exploring sensorimotor behavior of free-tailed bats when returning to their cave roost at speeds exceeding 60 km/h. By combining acoustic recordings with multiple-camera recordings, we reconstructed the 3D path of bats in flight both during and in-between pulse emission. From these data we examined how acoustic behavior changed depending on altitude and velocity, and whether changes in flight trajectory or kinematics coincided with the reception of echoes. Our results demonstrate that when echolocating at fast flight speeds, bats use a predictable, open-loop sensing strategy to navigate their environment. This may be advantageous for bats flying at fast speeds and experiencing high g forces, as the physiological consequences of closed-loop sensing may be too demanding.