Bat Ear Muscles Prevent Self-Deafening

Bats use a built-in neural mechanism to keep their intense echolocation calls from making them deaf. A 1975 study of little brown bats found that a tiny muscle in their ear contracts the exact millisecond they emit their high-pitched shriek and relaxes just in time to catch the returning echo. This precise timing allows bats to hear the echoes they need for navigation and hunting.

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