Singing Rats and Sonar Bats

Abstract

This chapter examines how animals have evolved a wide range of hearing organs to detect features of sound, some responding more to changes in intensity, others more to changes in pressure. Ears have evolved numerous times independently and they can occur in a range of structures and body locations. Hearing has numerous functions. For many animals, it is vital for detecting threats, such as an approaching predator. Hearing is also critical to a variety of other activities, from communicating territory ownership and trying to attract a mate, to detecting prey items in the undergrowth, and even sometimes in navigation. Of all animals, the group that must surely have the most remarkable and sophisticated hearing is the bats. Many bat species can echolocate using sounds that they produce themselves. The chapter also looks at the auditory system of owls and how rodents produce ultrasonic calls, called ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs).