Examples of simulated trajectories of bats searching for roosts, for each of three discrimination abilities.

<p>Lines represent trajectories of three bats distinguished with different line patterns. Starting points are denoted with a black bullet; small gray circles represent unsuitable trees (type A), crossed circles – confounding trees (type B), stars – suitable trees (with cavity, type C). Large shaded circles illustrate a calling range, with the bat calling from the tree in the centre of the circle, small shaded circles around visited trees show the range within which the tree can be detected. Within both of these perceptual ranges bats fly directly to the target tree. Bats that have wandered beyond the ‘searching range’, will reorient towards the current roost (most visible in the middle panel). In the right hand panel the simulation assumes that the bats follow a ‘memorized’ mental map and go directly to the closest suitable tree. Note that for clarity the proportions in the figure differ from those used in actual simulations.