As a hunting bat closes in on a flying insect, its echolocation calls get closer and closer together, and shorter and shorter in duration. The calls, more than 160 per second, give the bat rapid-fire information on the location of its ever-moving prey.

To the human ear, the calls register as one continuous sound. Researchers call it the “terminal buzz,” and until recently, scientists did not fully understand how bats produced it.

Bats use muscles in the larynx to produce sound, just like humans, but scientists had never found a mammal muscle that could turn on and off that quickly.

"You can tap your finger on a table, and you can try to tap your finger as fast as you possibly can," said Andy Mead, a biology graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Eventually, your muscles seize up and you can’t tap any faster, Mead said. “You can probably tap five, six, seven times a second if you really try.”

As part of a research team led by Coen Elemans from the University of Southern Denmark , Mead found muscles in a bat larynx that could turn on and off in less than one one-hundredth of a second, firing up to 180 times a second.

"It was instantaneously really shocking and exciting to see yes, this is a very, very fast muscle," Mead said.

The discovery marked the first evidence of a “superfast” muscle in a mammal. Superfast muscles are responsible for the rattle of a rattlesnake and the mating call of the bottom-dwelling toadfish and some songbirds, but the discovery of the muscles in mammals leads researchers to believe they may be more common than they thought. They are also key to the evolutionary success of bats, which are the only flying mammals to use echolocation to hunt.

See the original story from our partners at WHYY.

Additional Links

• Scientific community unites to save bats: Bats are dying at rapid rates of the mysterious white nose syndrome. Learn about efforts in Pennsylvania to study the disease.

Humboldt Squid. Photo: NOAA/CBNMS.

Large numbers of Humboldt squid, deep purple-red and up to six feet long, have propelled themselves into Monterey Bay mid-summer since 2002. They spend the fall and early winter here, probably to feed, and then spend spring further south. But this year, the squid have yet to arrive. No one knows if the squid are behind schedule or if they’re not going to show up at all. Humboldt squid isn’t the most popular item on the menu in North America, but it is very big in Japan, making it the world’s 14^th largest fishery by weight. And, their absence leaves a hole in Monterey Bay’s food chain. The Humboldt squid are voracious predators, feeding on anchovies, sardines, rockfish, market squid, and crustaceans. The delayed arrival of the Humboldt squid is a mystery, and it could have consequences for the underwater ecosystem—in Monterey Bay and all along the coast of California.

Humboldt squid haven’t been in our waters forever. Check out QUEST’s TV story The Fierce Humboldt Squid for the full story. Historically, the Humboldt Squid have lived in equatorial waters of the Pacific, from Chile to Mexico. In the 1930s, their range extended further north, and they were caught by fishermen in Monterey. Then they disappeared, only to return briefly in 1997. But they returned again in 2002, and have every year since.

There are a few hypotheses about why the squid come and go. Maybe they are responding to changes in their food supply. Or, their populations may grow when there are fewer predators—Humboldt squid are eaten by tunas, sharks, and sperm whales, some of which are in decline. Another possibility is the warming of northern waters, caused by El Niño. Trade winds usually blow from east to west across the Pacific, piling up warm water near Indonesia. During an El Niño, the trade winds die down, and warm water moves eastward, towards North and South America. The typically cold waters of Monterey Bay become unusually warm—warm enough, scientists think, for the Humboldt Squid to move in. The squids returned in 1997 and again in 2002—both were El Niño years. After 2002, the warm El Niño waters didn’t stick around, but the Humboldt squid kept coming back. This year, the squid are absent, and this is surprising because it seems to be an El Niño year (remember all that rain we got this past winter?).

Julie Stewart, a grad student at Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station, is researching the migration and movement of Humboldt squid for her dissertation. (Her advisor, Professor William Gilly, is featured in the QUEST video.) Julie has data from thousands of hours of underwater video, filmed on MBARI’s submersibles, which she’s using to estimate squid populations over the past decade. She’s put satellite tags on squid, to see where they go and how deep they dive. She wants to find out whether the squids' movement is in response to food supply, predators, ocean conditions, or other variables.

Julie wondered if the squid were here, but in small numbers, making them harder to find. Or, if the squid were just very far offshore. So last week, she spent five days aboard a Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary research cruise, looking for squid. The primary purpose of the trip was to do marine mammal and seabird surveys, which happen during the daytime—the captain let her search for squid at night. Julie and other crew on the boat used jigs—glow-in-the dark lures with spikes—on fishing lines. They jigged at 10 stations near the Davidson Seamount, about 80 miles southwest of Monterey Bay. And they found exactly zero squid. Even far offshore, the squid were nowhere to be seen. Julie and her colleagues have been talking to fishermen up and down the west coast, from southern California to Washington, and no one has seen squid this summer.

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Photo by: Melissa Batson

And how they put a snare in the plan for chimps and humans to live together.

In the Budongo Forests of Uganda, a large group of Chimpanzees, named by researchers The Sonso Group, attempt to thrive in their natural habitat, eating plants and small prey. At the same time, humans who live around the forest are also trying to survive, working at places like the local sugarcane plantation and living in straw and mud houses. For food, they set out into the forest with small snares and aim for duiker and or pig.

Most of these snares are made from wire. As chimpanzees walk through the forest, their hands or feet may become trapped in the snare. In two of the forests where chimpanzees are studied, researchers have observed up to 25 percent of chimpanzees are maimed due to snare injuries. More die.

This problem is typical all over the world. How do the chimps and people live together? How do elephants and people live together? Wolves and people? Mountain Lions and Bay Area people? Though solutions seem impossible at times, I am impressed by many of the solutions, one being that of the Budongo Snare Removal Project.

In January 2000, the Jane Goodall Institute in collaboration with the Budongo Forest Project initiated a snare removal program in the Budongo Forest Reserve. The objective is to reduce the number of snares set, reduce the number of animals caught in snares and traps, and increase the number of local people who obey wildlife laws and understand the need for protecting wildlife.

Teams of two men locate and remove snares. After the first year of operation, they found that the number of snares being set within the grid system of the research area dropped. The census teams found heavy poaching and illegal activities were being carried out in the southern end of the forest reserve, so the team near the research site extended their range.

A new education center reaches out to the local community and provides education around ecology, wildlife and the treasure that is the chimpanzees.

The Oakland Zoo adopted this project in 2001 and the support covers the salaries for four field assistants, two educators, two eco-guards, and allowances for transportation and bike repair, gum boots, rain gear, backpacks, and compasses.

Funds raised at an annual fall lecture and silent auction and on Primate Discovery Day go toward this project.This year’s Primate Day is September 27^th and the lecture, featuring Shirley McGreal, is on October 2^nd.

The Oakland Zoo also supports connection and awareness of this project by visiting the site in Uganda. Teens will be traveling there in July and adults will embark on the journey (including gorilla trecking) in October.

More spots are available on this once in a lifetime adventure. For details, email: amy@oaklandzoo.org.

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