Some animals have poor eyesight due to living in caves and lack of exposure from the sun. To combat this, some animals turned towards echolocation in order to “see”; Bats are a great example. While they have small eyes that lack the ability to see at night very well, they are masters of echolocation.

Echolocation is used by animals with poor eyesight to navigate and hunt at night or in the ocean. Bats for example produce sound waves in the form of a click from their mouths or nose. That sound wave travels until it “hits” an object which causes an echo to be sent back to the bat’s ears, allowing it to accurately perceive where it is.

Echolocation can be better than true eyesight as it is more accurate in finding where objects are as well as functioning well in the day and night. Whales also use echolocation in the form of sonar. They too make certain noises that reverberate throughout the ocean and bounce back to them.ecolocation_types