The Never-Fail Bat Alarm

Psalm 119:154
“Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word.”

The swiftly moving bat cuts almost invisibly through the darkness, silent to all but those who can hear its ultrasonic radar. What chance does a poor night-flying cricket – prized as a tasty bat snack – have?

Let’s treat this problem as if you were the Creator, faced with the problem of giving your night-flying cricket a chance against its predator. Of course, you could design the cricket so that it would stay in its hiding place at night, but then you wouldn’t have a night-flying cricket. You could give the cricket the ability to hear the bat’s radar, but that alone won’t help the cricket if he can’t get to safety.

The solution our true Creator has invented to help the cricket preserve its life is another example of His engineering excellence. He has built the cricket with a single-celled bat detector that is wired into the cricket’s nervous system. The detector is triggered by the frequency that bats use for navigation. When triggered, the cell fires off up to 500 impulses per second. These impulses automatically cause the cricket to steer away from the source of the ultrasound. The most impressive engineering fact about this bat detector is that it only works if the cricket is in flight and therefore vulnerable to bats. When crickets are safe from bats – resting, hiding, eating or preening – the bat detector cell doesn’t fire any warning at all!

The precise elegance that the Creator has designed into the cricket for its protection is a witness to His wisdom in caring for all that He has created. Learn more about that wisdom in the Bible.

Prayer:
Dear Father, Your love is so great that it extends to all that You have made. Your love for me is deeper than I can ever know, but I thank You that I can know that You so loved me that You sent Your only Son for my salvation. Thank You for Your love. Help me to reflect that love to others. Amen.

Notes:
Shreeve, James. 1985. “The great cricket escape.” Science 85, May. p. 83. Photo: African Field cricket (PD)