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Stay close please children. In this lesson, we’re going to learn about how different animals communicate using sound, and not just any sound, ultrasound.

Sounds are made up of invisible waves that vibrate the air. Low-pitched sounds make waves that vibrate slowly, and high-pitched sounds make waves that vibrate fast. Ultrasonic sound makes waves that vibrate so quickly that only animals with especially sensitive hearing can pick them up.

Mice and rats communicate with each other using ultrasound. These baby rats are calling for their mother using very high-pitched squeaks. This means they can’t be overheard by any predators that might be lurking around.

We flies, of course, can detect sounds that are even higher than these, so there’s no ignoring these babies. There, there, little rats.

Let’s move on.

Now bats usually have quite good eyesight, but it’s their hearing that’s the real super sense.

They use an amazing system called echolocation, which helps them fly around and hunt in the dark.

A bat sends out very high pitched sound waves from its mouth or nose, and when the sound waves hit an object they bounce back to the bat’s ears. This enables a bat to build up a really detailed sound map of everything that’s around it.

Echolocation means a bat can locate its prey, even tiny flying insects like…

Well… like flies.

I’m not sure we should stick around here for too long… Aargh!