Bats adjust the size of their mouth gape to modify their navigation pulses’ width while moving and overcome auditory ambush, researchers recently found out.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a new research shows how bats change their emitter aperture to control their sensory field of view actively and functionally.

According to the research, bats change their mouth gape to dramatically and rapidly focus their biosonar field of view to functionally adjust sensory acquisition. This means for active sensing, these nocturnal creatures change the shape of their emitter.

It must be noted that through a technique called echolocation, bats bounce ultrasonic sound off of their surroundings to navigate and these sounds can reverberate in cramped spots.  This creates an auditory ambush or a deafening background that clouds the sonic sight of bats.

The researchers developed tools to simultaneously record and analyze bats’ beams and faces to perform the study in a natural situation with wild bats. These tools were ultrasonic recorders, flashes and cameras to photograph bats swooping down to take a sip at a desert pond in Israel.

After repeating the experiment with captive bats, the researchers found the same effect. They concluded that the changes in bats’ gape allow them to “zoom in” on their view of an area, which possibly reduces the amount of distracting echoes in a tight space.

In another bat-related news, “Batman: Earth One – Volume Two” has been released by DC Comics. The graphic novel is the sequel to writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank’s number one New York Times bestseller “Batman: Earth One.”