@article {58203, title = {Bats and moths: what is there left to learn?}, year = {2003}, abstract = {

Over 14 families of moths have ears that are adapted to detect the ultrasonic echolocation calls of bats. On hearing a bat, these moths respond with an escape response that reduces their chances of being caught. As an evolutionary response, bats may then have evolved behavioural strategies or changes in call design to overcome the moth\&$\#$39;s hearing. The nature of this interaction is reviewed. In particular, the role of the echolocation calls of bats in the shaping of the structure, neurophysiology and behavioural responses of moths is discussed. Unresolved issues, such as the structural complexity of the moth\&$\#$39;s auditory system, the nature of temporal integration and the role of the non-auditory B cell, are described. Issues in which the interactions between bats and moths may be of more general interest to biologists, such as noise filtering within the central nervous system, protean behaviours and coevolution between predator and prey, are also discussed. The interaction between bats and moths has much to interest general biologists, and may provide a useful model in understanding the neurophysiological basis of behaviour, including protean escape behaviours. The validity of the term coevolution as applied to this system is discussed, as there is no doubt that the auditory system of moths is a response to the echolocation calls of bats, although the evolutionary response of bats to moths is more ambiguous.

}, doi = {10.1111/pen.2003.28.issue-410.1111/j.1365-3032.2003.00355.x}, url = {http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/pen/28/4}, author = {Waters, Dean A.} } @article {58052, title = {Use of vocal signatures for the inventory of free-flying Neotropical bats}, journal = {BiotropicaBiotropica}, volume = {31}, number = {3}, year = {1999}, pages = {507-516}, abstract = {

An ongoing study is being conducted to test the efficacy of the Anabat II detector and analysis system in obtaining reliable vocal signatures for the identification of non-phyllostomid species of bats. We sampled a wide range of elevations and associated habitat types throughout Belize. Anabat provides an instantaneous output of echolocation call structure with a laptop computer. Select sequences can be saved directly to the hard drive, avoiding extraneous noise and sound distortion commonly associated with tape recorders. To date, 18 of the 37 species known or expected
to occur in the study region were identified by recognizable differences in the time-frequency characteristics of echolocation calls. In general, each family is recognizable by call structure patterns and species readily separated by frequency range parameters. Species that commute or forage at high altitudes are not susceptible to capture but are conspicuous by acoustic sampling. Further work is needed to determine limitations of the equipment, establish better sampling procedures, and develop a comprehensive library of vocal signatures incorporating the range of variation
inherent in each species. As this work progresses, we predict the addition of hitherto unknown species occurring within the study region.

}, keywords = {acoustic identification, Anabat, bats, Bauerus dubiaquercus, Chiroptera, diversity assessment, Emballonuridae, Eptesicus furinalis, inventory, Mormoopidae, Mormoops megalophylla, Myotis elegans, Neotropics, Noctilio leporinus, Pteronotus davyi, Pteronotus parnellii, Pteronotus personatus, Rhogeessa tumida, Saccopteryx bilineata, Saccopteryx leptura}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Farrell, Michael J. and Miller, Bruce W.} } @article {58051, title = {Qualitative Identification of Free-flying Bats Using the Anabat Detector}, journal = {Journal of MammalogyJournal of Mammalogy}, volume = {80}, number = {1}, year = {1999}, note = {JRS}, pages = {11-23}, abstract = {

A variety of ultrasonic bat detectors have been used over the past 3 decades to identify freeflying bats. Analyses of recorded echolocation calls were slow and typically restricted to few calls and at a resolution obscuring details of call structure. The Anabat II detector and associated zerocrossings analysis system allows an immediate examination, via a laptop computer, of the timefrequency structure of calls as they are detected. These calls can be stored on the hard drive for later examination, editing, and measurement. Many North American bats can be identified to species by qualitatively using certain structural characteristics of calls, primarily approximate maximum and minimum frequencies and morphological aspects of calls e.g., linearity and changes in slope). To identify calls precisely, it is important to use a continuous sequence of calls from an individual in normal flight rather than from single isolated calls. All calls are not equally useful, and many fragmentary calls must be discarded before making a determination. Each sequence of calls must be examined to ensure that multiple bats have not been simultaneously recorded, which confounds correct identification. We found the percentage of nonusable calls within usable vocal sequences to be highest in vespertilionids 20-40\%), whereas for other families this was frequently \<10\%. Active rather than passive collection of data maximizes quality and quantity of diagnostic calls and provides a contextual base for the investigator.

}, keywords = {Anabat, bats, Chiroptera, echolocation, Eptesicus furinalis, identification, Lasionycteris noctivagans, Lasiurus cinereus, Lasiurus ega, Molossus ater, Molossus molossus, Molossus sinaloae, Myotis californicus, Myotis ciliolabrum, Myotis yumanensis, Noctilio leporinus, Saccopteryx bilineata, Tadarida brasiliensis, technique, vocal signatures}, author = {O{\textquoteright}Farrell, Michael J. and Miller, Bruce W. and Gannon, William L.} } @article {57392, title = {Social calls of Myotis nattereri during swarming: Call structure mirrors the different behavioral context}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

Swarming is a characteristic behavior of bats that occurs in different social contexts. We studied the swarming behavior of Myotis nattereri at a maternity colony and at an autumn swarming site in South-West Germany by using synchronized sound and video recordings. Swarming was always associated with social vocalizations consisting of four frequently occurring call types. Call type A was a short call with a broadband steep-shallow-steep downward frequency modulation. Call type B consisted of two elements beginning with a broadband upward hooked element followed by a steep frequency modulated element. Call type C showed a characteristic rapid downward-upward-downward frequency modulation. Call type D was a long sinusoidal trill-like call with high variability in signal structure. All call types were recorded at the maternity colony, as well as at the autumn swarming site, but the incidence of each call type differed distinctly between the study sites. At the maternity roost, type A calls were most commonly produced. We found evidence for an individual signature in this call type and suggest that this social call has the function of a contact call in Natterer\’s bats. At the autumn swarming site, type D calls were the most common social calls; in contrast, this call type was recorded only twice at the maternity roost. The occurrence of trills mainly at the autumn swarming site and their high variability suggests that trills function as male advertisement calls in M. nattereri.

}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0221792}, url = {http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221792}, author = {Schmidbauer, Philipp and Denzinger, Annette}, editor = {Jon T. Sakata} } @article {53434, title = {Social vocalizations of big-footed myotis (Myotis macrodactylus) during foraging}, journal = {Integrative Zoology}, year = {2018}, month = {Feb-12-2020}, abstract = {

Acoustic signals play a crucial role in transmitting information and maintaining social stability in gregarious animals, especially in echolocating bats which rely primarily on biological sonar for navigating in the dark. In the context of foraging without relying on tactile, visual, or olfactory cues, acoustic signals convey information not only on food, but also on ownership and defense of resources. However, studies on such information remain fragmentary. In the present study, we aim to document the social vocal repertoire of Myotis macrodactylus at natural foraging sites. Multiple acoustic analyses and spectrographic classification revealed a rich foraging vocal repertoire comprising 6 simple syllables and 2 composites. Discriminant function analyses associated with a subset-validation procedure provided an optimal method to spectrographically classify all recorded sounds into different syllable types. Multidimensional scaling of median values of multiple parameters further confirmed notable differences among these syllables in a three-dimensional space. In addition, Euclidean distance analysis showed that there were some spectral similarities between specific social vocal syllables and feeding buzzes, which implied a potential jamming role. Altogether, the data indicate that bats at foraging sites under natural conditions used variant social vocalizations with different functions in addition to echolocation calls, providing supporting evidence for further work on the function and vocal mechanisms of acoustic communication in mammals.

}, keywords = {bats, foraging, Social calls, Spectro-temporal features}, doi = {10.1111/1749-4877.12367}, url = {http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/1749-4877.12367}, author = {Guo, Dongge and Luo, Bo and Zhang, Kangkang and LIU, Muxun and Metzner, Walter and Liu, Ying and Feng, Jiang} } @article {53350, title = {Acoustic similarity elicits responses to heterospecific distress calls in bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera)}, journal = {Animal Behaviour}, volume = {146}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-12-2018}, pages = {143 - 154}, abstract = {

Frequently, individuals of one species respond to alarm calls produced by another species. This form of interspecies communication can be critical for survival. How animals recognize and respond to heterospecific alarm calls is, however, still poorly understood. This is especially true for bats, which are highly vocal and possess a specialized auditory system. We hypothesized that, among bat species, acoustic similarity between heterospecific and conspecific alarm calls is a key factor that underlies call recognition. However, this ability could also be acquired via associative learning from prior exposure or result from phylogenetic relatedness among caller and receiver species, as shown by others. Here we focused on distress calls of bats as representing a certain type of alarm call. To test our hypothesis, we recorded distress calls of 11 bat species from four families at five different sites. We broadcast the recorded calls to three of these species (Rhinolophus sinicus, Myotis badius and Myotis laniger). For all three species, neither prior exposure (familiarity) nor phylogenetic relatedness explained the variation in the response strength, as measured by echolocation vocalizations of receiver species in response to playback of heterospecific distress calls. In contrast, acoustic similarity, especially in peak frequency, between conspecific and heterospecific distress calls, was positively correlated with response strength in the receiver species. Thus, our findings emphasize that, at least among bats, acoustic similarity is a key factor allowing recognition of heterospecific alarm calls. It remains unclear whether evolutionary, genetic and/or neurophysiological mechanisms entrain an individual to respond selectively to a specific acoustic feature.

}, keywords = {acoustic similarity, bat, distress call, interspecific eavesdropping, learning, peak frequency, phylogenetic relatedness}, issn = {00033472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.10.018}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218303191https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218303191?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218303191?httpAccept=text/plain}, author = {Huang, Xiaobin and Metzner, Walter and Zhang, Kangkang and Wang, Yujuan and Luo, Bo and Sun, Congnan and Jiang, Tinglei and Feng, Jiang} } @article {53289, title = {Resource Ephemerality Drives Social Foraging in Bats}, journal = {Current Biology}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-11-2018}, abstract = {

Observations of animals feeding in aggregations are often interpreted as events of social foraging, but it can be difficult to determine whether the animals arrived at the foraging sites after collective search [1, 2, 3, 4] or whether they found the sites by following a leader [5, 6] or even independently, aggregating as an artifact of food availability [7, 8]. Distinguishing between these explanations is important, because functionally, they might have very different consequences. In the first case, the animals could benefit from the presence of conspecifics, whereas in the second and third, they often suffer from increased competition [3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. Using novel miniature sensors, we recorded GPS tracks and audio of five species of bats, monitoring their movement and interactions with conspecifics, which could be inferred from the audio recordings. We examined the hypothesis that food distribution plays a key role in determining social foraging patterns [14, 15, 16]. Specifically, this hypothesis predicts that searching for an ephemeral resource (whose distribution in time or space is hard to predict) is more likely to favor social foraging [10, 13, 14, 15] than searching for a predictable resource. The movement and social interactions differed between bats foraging on ephemeral versus predictable resources. Ephemeral species changed foraging sites and showed large temporal variation nightly. They aggregated with conspecifics as was supported by playback experiments and computer simulations. In contrast, predictable species were never observed near conspecifics and showed high spatial fidelity to the same foraging sites over multiple nights. Our results suggest that resource (un)predictability influences the costs and benefits of social foraging.

}, keywords = {bat, behavioral ecology, echolocation, foraging, GPS, movement ecology, navigation, sociobiology}, issn = {09609822}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2018.09.064}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982218312909https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0960982218312909?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0960982218312909?httpAccept=text/plain}, author = {Egert-Berg, Katya and Hurme, Edward R. and Greif, Stefan and Goldstein, Aya and Harten, Lee and Herrera M., Luis Gerardo and Flores-Mart{\'\i}nez, Jos{\'e} Juan and Vald{\'e}s, Andrea T. and Johnston, Dave S. and Eitan, Ofri and Borissov, Ivo and Shipley, Jeremy Ryan and Medellin, Rodrigo A. and Wilkinson, Gerald S. and Goerlitz, Holger R. and Yovel, Yossi} } @article {48149, title = {Interspecific acoustic recognition in two European bat communities}, journal = {Frontiers in Physiology}, volume = {4}, year = {2013}, month = {Jan-01-2013}, abstract = {

Echolocating bats emit echolocation calls for spatial orientation and foraging. These calls are often species-specific and are emitted at high intensity and repetition rate. Therefore, these calls could potentially function in intra- and/or inter-specific bat communication. For example, bats in the field approach playbacks of conspecific feeding buzzes, probably because feeding buzzes indicate an available foraging patch. In captivity, some species of bats recognize and distinguish the echolocation calls of different sympatric species. However, it is still unknown if and how acoustic species-recognition mediates interspecific interactions in the field. Here we aim to understand eavesdropping on bat echolocation calls within and across species boundaries in wild bats. We presented playbacks of conspecific and heterospecific search calls and feeding buzzes to four bat species with different foraging ecologies. The bats were generally more attracted by feeding buzzes than search calls and more by the calls of conspecifics than their heterospecifics. Furthermore, bats showed differential reaction to the calls of the heterospecifics. In particular, \<i\>Myotis capaccinii\</i\> reacted equally to the feeding buzzes of conspecifics and to ecologically more similar heterospecifics. Our results confirm eavesdropping on feeding buzzes at the intraspecific level in wild bats and provide the first experimental quantification of potential eavesdropping in European bats at the interspecific level. Our data support the hypothesis that bat echolocation calls have a communicative potential that allows interspecific, and potentially intraspecific, eavesdropping in the wild.

}, keywords = {acoustic communication, eavesdropping, echolocation, feeding buzz, interspecific communication, intraspecific communication, search calls}, doi = {10.3389/fphys.2013.00192}, url = {http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2013.00192/abstract}, author = {Dorado-Correa, Adriana M. and Goerlitz, Holger R. and Siemers, Bj{\"o}rn M.} }