achieves its extraordinary accuracy . The bat gets just two incoming signals , one in each ear , and must construct a three-dimensional map detailed enough to allow them to zip through dense forests and routinely perform improbable sensory tasks — distinguishing a moth ’ s wingbeat from the flutter of a leaf , for example . One piece of the puzzle is the intricate structure of the bats ’ ears , which helps shape incoming pulses . For nose-emitting species like the horseshoe bats Mueller studies , similarly ornate structures called noseleaves act like megaphones to amplify and shape outgoing signals . Mueller has found that movements of the ears and noseleaves help , too , by packing extra information into every ultrasonic pulse the bats receive . Over the last several years , his group has demonstrated that these rapid movements alter the ultrasound waves leaving the nose and the echoes entering the ears . The new study is the first to demonstrate that these changes enrich the signals ’ information content . In particular , Mueller and his colleagues showed that the ability of the ears and noseleaves to adopt different conformations increases the bats ’ ability to localize the source of incoming signals . Mueller also directs the Virginia Tech Center for Bioinspired Science and Technology , which is supported in part by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science .