Bat and moth game
Bats navigate the night skies and catch their food. Play this game and see how well you’d do if you were a bat.
How bats find food in the dark
Bats use echolocation to get around in the dark. Bats make a sound that travels in waves through the air. The waves bounce back off objects and the bat knows from the way the sound bounces back what’s around.
The sounds bats make are very high-pitched – too high for most people to hear. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be able to hear it, as we tend to lose the ability to hear higher frequencies are we get older.
Play this game and see how well you’d do if you were a bat.
What you will need
- Blindfold eg a dark scarf
- At least one other person to play the game with.
How to play
- Choose one person to be a bat. This person wears the blindfold.
- Everyone else is a moth.
- The person who is a bat stands in the centre and calls out “bat” to those who are moths.
- When the bat calls, the moths reply “moth.”
- The bat has to try to catch the moths, and the moths should do their best to “fly” away from the bats.
- Everyone is able to move around, with the bat continually calling out “bat” and the moths replying “moth.”
- Take it turns to be the bat and see how long it takes each bat to catch a moth.