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New research reveals that bats compete for food by jamming sonar. Researchers explained that these flying mammals use echolocation to find and track insect prey in complete darkness. However, Mexican free-tailed bats produce specialized jamming calls to confuse other bats when they sense competition.

Researchers explain that these bats take turns jamming each other until one of them yields.  

"This is the first study to show that bats actively jam the echolocation of other bats, and it increases the number of known functions of bat sounds to three: echolocation, communication, and acoustic interference," researcher Aaron Corcoran of the University of Maryland said in a news release.

The latest study was conducted at the Southwestern Research Station in Arizona and in a high school parking lot in Animas, New Mexico. Researchers recorded natural bat competitions with highly sensitive cameras and a specialized array of ultrasonic microphones that allowed them to recreate the flight paths of the bats from their emitted sounds. The findings revealed that the bats almost always missed their prey when another bat was jamming them.

Researchers also lured wild bats into trying to capture moths suspended from an ultra-thin fishing line while they played different ultrasonic sounds from a speaker. The findings revealed that bats missed the prey when the jamming call was played at precisely the right time and frequency.

"It isn't known if other bat species - or other echolocating animals like dolphins - are employing the same tactic," co-researcher William Conner, professor of biology at Wake Forest University, said in a news release.

"This research changes our understanding of the possible ways animals compete with each other for food, which is one of the most basic biological needs," added Corcoran.

The findings are published in the journal Science.