02274nas a2200241   4500008004100000022001400041245009400055210006900149260001600218300001500234520143200249653000901681653002001690653001301710653002101723653001001744653000901754100001701763700002401780700002101804700002101825856018601846       2019                        eng d  a0022-094900aNoise as an informational cue for decision-making: the sound of rain delays bat emergence0 aNoise as an informational cue for decisionmaking the sound of ra  cSep-01-2020  ajeb.1920053 a<p>Background noise can have strong negative consequences on animals, reducing individual fitness by masking communication signals, impeding prey detection and increasing predation risk. While the negative impacts of noise across taxa have been well documented, the use of noise as an informational cue, providing animals with reliable information on environmental conditions has been less well studied. In the tropical rainforest, downpours can be intense and frequent. Strong rainfall may impede efficient orientation and foraging for bats that need echolocation to both navigate and detect prey, and can result in higher flight costs due to increased metabolic rates. Using playback experiments at natural roosts we tested whether two bat species, differing in their hunting strategies and foraging habitats, use rain noise as a cue to delay emergence from their roosts. We found that both species significantly delayed their emergence time during rain noise playbacks compared to silence and ambient noise controls. We conclude that bats can use background noise, here the acoustic component of rainfall, as a reliable informational cue to make informed decisions, here about whether to initiate foraging trips or remain in the shelter of their roosts. Our findings suggest that environmental background noise can sometimes be beneficial to animals, in particular in situations where other sensory cues may be absent.</p>
10abats10adecision-making10aforaging10ainformation cues10aNoise10arain1 aGeipel, Inga1 aSmeekes, Marcus, J.1 aHalfwerk, Wouter1 aPage, Rachel, A.  uhttp://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.192005https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1242/jeb.192005https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1242/jeb.19200502209nas a2200241   4500008004100000022001300041245006600054210006500120260001600185300001200201490000800213520132800221653002001549653001301569653002001582653001701602653002801619653001801647100002601665700002201691700002101713856023301734       2018                        eng d  a0003347200aCognitive constraints on optimal foraging in frog-eating bats0 aCognitive constraints on optimal foraging in frogeating bats  cJan-09-2018  a43 - 500 v1433 a<p>Animals are expected to optimize energy intake when choosing between different foraging options. A common explanation for deviations from optimal economic decisions is that there is an imperfect relationship between physical reality and an animal&#39;s perceptual processes, which can constrain assessment of profitability. One such phenomenon that is apparently ubiquitous across taxa is proportional processing, where a perceived change in a stimulus is proportional to the change in stimulus magnitude. In this study, we investigated whether proportional processing explains how frog-eating bats, Trachops cirrhosus, discriminate between patches of frog choruses that vary in their number of calling frogs. To test this, we created artificial choruses consisting of one to six calling frogs. In the flight cage, we then tested the preference of bats (N = 17) with every pairwise combination of chorus size. We found that while bats generally preferred larger choruses, preferences for larger choruses were better explained by the relative, not absolute, differences in chorus sizes. This indicates that T. cirrhosus is perceptually limited in its ability to discriminate between choruses of varying size as the choruses increase in size. Foragers are likely to be less choosy when choosing among larger patches.</p>
10aDecision making10aforaging10afrog-eating bat10apatch choice10aproportional processing10atúngara frog1 aHemingway, Claire, T.1 aRyan, Michael, J.1 aPage, Rachel, A.  uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218302227https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302227?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302227?httpAccept=text/plain