Echolocation was thought to be the domain of three creatures: bats, dolphins and Marvel’s Daredevil. Long suspected and now proven, we can add humans to the short list.

Research appears in the journal Acta Acustica that explains the process, via Discovery:

By recording the sounds and analyzing the shape of their sound waves, the team determined that the front click, or “palatal click,” was the most suited for echolocation. It is a simple sound, so the brain can interpret the echo easily, Martinez noted, but it also contains many frequencies. “The more frequencies involved in the echo, the more information about the object,” he said.

Kish agrees that many of the best echolocators use palatal clicks, but he noted that there is a role for both types. The rear-of-the-mouth click can be used to make very loud “power clicks,” he said, which are helpful for locating a building from a distance, even if the resolution of the information created by the sound is not as sharp as with the clearer palatal click.

Natural clicks are optimal for echolocation, Martinez added. According to research in progress, “if you don’t use natural clicks, your echolocation performance will be orders of magnitude worse.”