Datasets for "Horseshoe bats make silence to hear prey"

Horseshoe bats lower the frequency of their echolocation calls during flight so that echoes remain stable at a reference frequency (fref) despite Doppler shifts.

Here we reveal a previously unrecognized function: it not only aligns echoes with the most sensitive frequency range but also suppresses background clutter noise to enhance prey detection. Using phantom echo playbacks and on-board recordings, we show that bats compensate for the highest-frequency echoes rather than the strongest ones. This shifts clutter echoes below fref, leaving a “silent spectral window” above it.