02313nas a2200277   4500008004100000022001300041245008800054210006900142260001600211300001400227490000800241520150900249653002701758653000901785653003701794653001301831653001601844100001201860700001601872700001601888700001601904700001901920700001401939700001601953856006601969       2017                        eng d  a0003347200aSocial calls honestly signal female competitive ability in Asian particoloured bats0 aSocial calls honestly signal female competitive ability in Asian  cJan-05-2017  a101 - 1080 v1273 a<p>Why a variety of social animals vocalize during agonistic foraging interactions remains obscure. One possibility is that these signals advertise the signaller&#39;s competitive ability, playing a role in the defence of food resources, yet there is limited evidence in support of this idea. Here, we used adult female Asian particoloured bats, Vespertilio sinensis, to test whether individual variation in competitive ability when foraging can be explained by social calls. Using synchronized infrared video and audio recording, we monitored bat social vocalizations, dominance rank and weight gain in triads under controlled food conditions. Additionally, subsequent playbacks, consisting of experimental stimuli, echolocation pulses and silence, were presented to feeding bats in a laboratory. Analyses showed that females uttered low-frequency social calls composed of one to five syllable types during feeding competition. The rates of social vocalizations increased with reduced food availability. Interestingly, dominance score and weight gain correlated weakly with body size, but positively with call rate and associated parameters. Playback of social calls inhibited the visits of bats to the focal food dish compared to playback of silence and echolocation pulses. The amount of food consumed was greatly reduced in the presence of experimental stimuli versus controls. Collectively, these results highlight that acoustic signals serve as an honest indicator of bat competitive ability.</p>
10aaggressive interaction10abats10acompetitive ability echolocation10aforaging10asocial call1 aLuo, Bo1 aLu, Guanjun1 aChen, Kelly1 aGuo, Dongge1 aHuang, Xiaobin1 aLiu, Ying1 aFeng, Jiang  uhttp://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347217300842