02894nas a2200313   4500008004100000022001300041245010600054210006900160260001600229300001400245490000800259520179700267653002402064653000802088653001802096653003202114653001302146653001902159653002902178100001902207700002002226700002002246700001702266700001202283700001702295700001902312700001602331856023302347       2018                        eng d  a0003347200aAcoustic similarity elicits responses to heterospecific distress calls in bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera)0 aAcoustic similarity elicits responses to heterospecific distress  cJan-12-2018  a143 - 1540 v1463 a<p>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.</p>
10aacoustic similarity10abat10adistress call10ainterspecific eavesdropping10alearning10apeak frequency10aphylogenetic relatedness1 aHuang, Xiaobin1 aMetzner, Walter1 aZhang, Kangkang1 aWang, Yujuan1 aLuo, Bo1 aSun, Congnan1 aJiang, Tinglei1 aFeng, Jiang  uhttps://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