They swap these roles by copying the route a nearby individual was using up to 500 milliseconds earlier

by swapping between leading and following

Despite flying through the air at high-speeds, researchers have discovered that bats avoid mishaps because they have their own set of ‘traffic rules' when hunting for food.

Somerset Daubenton’s bats, in particular, chase each other, perform tandem turns and can even slow down without ever hitting each other.

And now researchers have found this is down to the way they take part in 'formation flying'.

Researchers from Bristol University measured biosonar bat calls to calculate what members of group perceived as they foraged for food. It found the bats interact by swapping between leading and following, and they swap these roles by copying the route a nearby individual was using up to 500 milliseconds earlier

Dr Marc Holderied, of the School of Biological Sciences at Bristol University, studied pairs of Daubenton’s bats foraging low over water for stranded insects at a site near the village of Barrow Gurney, in Somerset.

These flying mammals perceive their surroundings by emitting loud and high-pitched biosonar calls and listening for the returning echoes.

Because bat biosonar imaging is much sparser in information than vision, Dr Holderied was able to accurately measure the biosonar calls of the interacting bats and then calculate what each of the individuals perceived.

The researchers found that the winged mammal uses one simple trick to create their interactive behaviours - they swap who is taking a leading role and who is following.

They swap these leader-follower roles and perform chases or co-ordinated manoeuvres by copying the route a nearby individual was using up to 500 milliseconds earlier.

The experts studied Daubenton's bats (pictured). They said: 'The bats seem to have adopted a simple trick - once another individual is close enough for your biosonar to pick up its echo [and] copy this individual’s flight direction. The discovery could help improve search and rescue missions and surveillance operations

This almost as fast as the blink of a human eye, which as been measured at between 300 to 400 milliseconds.

Dr Holderied said: 'The bats seem to have adopted a simple trick - once another individual is close enough for your biosonar to pick up its echo, copy this individual’s flight direction within four to five of your own wingbeats.'

And his team said the discovery could have wider implications - helping improve search and rescue missions and surveillance operations.

The study was published in Plos Computation Biology.