How whales use SONAR to locate prey in total darkness has fallen to research, says S.Ananthanarayanan. Toothed whales, which include dolphins, are able to precisely locate and snap up very small fish or other food that come before them, even in deep water
where there is hardly any visibility. They use SONAR, or echolocation, of course, but how they achieve the uncanny accuracy has not been understood. Laura Kloepper from the University of Hawaii, USA, and her PhD adviser, Paul Nachtigall now report in the Journal
of Experimental Biology, their finding that dolphin species called the false killer whale (because of its resemblance) is able to focus and adjust its beam of sound waves, to get the most crisp echoes and the best fix on its target.