One question about echolocation abilities is whether dolphins have to wait for an echo from one click to come back to them before they can send out the next echolocation click. The amount of time between clicks is
called the interclick interval (ICT). To gather information about the environment or their prey. dolphins send
they should click again as soon as the echo returns (after a very short <0.1 second time for the brain to
process the click). If dolphins can send out a second click before the echo of a first click gets back to them,
then the ICI should be less than the round-trip time for a single click
Table 3. Interclick Intervals (IC) of Bottlenose Dolphins in Shark Bay Echolocating on Objects at different
Distances
Individual
ICI (sec)
Distance of object
(m)
Round-trip time
for single click
(sec)
1
2
3
5
6
7
8
9
10
1.01
0.10
0.28
0.53
2.01
0.20
0.01
0.02
0.13
0.03
750
75
200
400
1,500
150
7.5
15
100
25
7.
Calculate the round-trip time for a single click for each individual in Table 3. Remember, an echo has
to travel to an object and then all the way back before a dolphin hears it.