Not a “Hall of Mirrors” - Dolphins can “See” (Echolocate) Through Concrete

Dolphins have a very advanced sense of echolocation and rely on that sense to navigate, feed and interact. Suggestions have been made that dolphins housed in an enclosed habitat would loose their sense of echolocation because of reflections off tank walls. This study demonstrates that dolphins can echolocate through concrete and investigates some of the acoustic properties of the signals produced by the dolphins that allow them to achieve this task. It also shows that dolphins have very fine control over click production and frequency content when attempting to locate an air-filled target behind a concrete plate.