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Title: Communication with self, friends and foes by active sensing animals
Animals that rely on electrolocation and echolocation for navigation and prey detection benefit from sensory systems that operate in the dark, exploiting a sensory niche with few competitors. Active sensing can be described as a highly specialized form of communication, with the self as both sender and receiver of sensory information. However, the overlapping functions of active sensing as communication with the self and active sensing as communication with others creates challenges for signal privacy and fidelity by leaving active sensing animals vulnerable to eavesdropping, jamming, and noise. Here we present an overview of active sensing systems used by weakly electric fish, bats and odontocetes and consider their susceptibility to heterospecific and conspecific jamming signals and eavesdropping. Susceptibility to jamming signals by both conspecifics and prey animals reduces the efficacy of electrolocation and echolocation for prey capture and foraging. Likewise, active sensing signals may be eavesdropped, opening risk of predation or competition at productive foraging sites. The evolutionary success of these animals suggests that they effectively counter the costs of active sensing through rich and diverse adaptive behaviors that allow them to mitigate the effects of competition for signal space and the exploitation of their signals for social communication.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1734744
PAR ID:
10340636
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of experimental biology
Volume:
224
ISSN:
0022-0949
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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