Geographical variation of social calls and vocal discrimination in male Himalayan leaf-nosed bats

Sun, Congnan; Jiang, Tinglei; Guo, Xiong; Zhang, Chunmian; Gong, Lixin; Shi, Biye; Feng, Jiang

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.10.003

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…More broadly, geographic variation in calls has been documented in a wide array of taxa, spanning arthropod (e.g., Claridge et al, 1985;Lampe et al, 2014), amphibian (e.g., Pröhl et al, 2007;Jang et al, 2011;Velásquez et al, 2014), birds (e.g., Marler and Tamura, 1962;Irwin, 2000;Robin et al, 2011), and a few species of mammals (e.g., Mitani et al, 1999;Eiler and Banack, 2004;Amano et al, 2014), but rarely reported in bats though they have rich vocal repertoires for communication. The studies available on bats showed that only a few types of communication vocalizations were divergent across populations/groups (Boughman and Wilkinson, 1998;Esser and Schubert, 1998;Davidson and Wilkinson, 2002;Bohn et al, 2009;Sun et al, 2020). In this study, we found that the most frequent syllable types exhibited significant population divergence, suggesting that geographic variation could be commonly observed in the communication vocalizations of bats.…”

Section: Geographic Variation In Simple Syllablessupporting

confidence: 50%

Geographic Variation in Social Vocalizations of the Great Himalayan Leaf-Nosed Bat, Hipposideros armiger: Acoustic Overflow Across Population Boundaries

Lin

Feng

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Bat populations employ rich vocal repertoires for social communication in addition to emitting sound pulses for echolocation. Acoustic parameters of echolocation pulses can vary with the context in which they are emitted, and also with the individual and across populations as a whole. The acoustic parameters of social vocalizations, or “calls”, also vary with the individual and context, but not much is known about their variation across populations at different geographic locations. Here, we leveraged the detailed acoustic classification of social vocalizations available for the Great Himalayan leaf-nosed bat, Hipposideros armiger, to examine geographic variation in five commonly emitted simple syllable types. We hypothesized that individuals within geographically dispersed populations communicate using spectrographically similar constructs or “syllable types”. We also examined whether call syllables vary discordantly with the correlation pattern observed for echolocation pulses across those same geographic regions. Furthermore, we postulated that the acoustic boundaries of a syllable type are not uniquely constrained to its variation within a particular population of the same subspecies. To test our hypotheses, we obtained recordings of social calls of H. a. armiger from nine locations within the oriental region. These locations were consolidated into five geographic regions based on previously established region-specific differences in the peak frequency of echolocation pulses. A multivariate cluster analysis established that unlike echolocation pulses, syllable types exhibit a relatively large variance. Analysis of this variance showed significant differences in Least Squares Means estimates, establishing significant population-level differences in the multiparametric means of individual syllable types across geographic regions. Multivariate discriminant analysis confirmed the presence of region-specific centroids for different syllable constructs, but also showed a large overlap of their multiparametric boundaries across geographic regions. We propose that despite differences in the population-specific core construct of a syllable type, bats maximize acoustic variation across individuals within a population irrespective of its overflow and overlap with other populations.

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Section: Geographic Variation In Simple Syllablessupporting

confidence: 50%

Geographic Variation in Social Vocalizations of the Great Himalayan Leaf-Nosed Bat, Hipposideros armiger: Acoustic Overflow Across Population Boundaries

Lin

Feng

2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Each recording file was 60 s long. Previous studies have found that this species vocalizes most actively approximately 2 h before they leave the cave to nightly forage and during the early morning hours after they return to the cave from foraging (Lin et al, 2016;Sun et al, 2020). Therefore, recording sessions were scheduled from 19:30 in the evening to 8:30 on the next morning to include the active vocal period of the bats.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex ratio potentially influence the complexity of social calls in Himalayan leaf-nosed bat groups

et al. 2023

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Animals living in a complex social environment emit diverse acoustic signals and thus serve as excellent subjects for understanding the evolution of acoustic communication. Previous studies have focused on the complexity of social calls in some group-living animals, yet the determinants of vocal complexity at the intraspecific level remain unclear. Here, we aimed to assess the influence of group composition on social call complexity in Himalayan leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideros armiger) in the non-breeding season. The bats divided into three groups with the same number of individuals but with different sex ratio compositions. We monitored social vocalizations for the all-male group, the all-female group, the mixed group, and also quantified vocal complexity for each group based on multiple acoustic metrics, including vocal repertoire, call sequences, the diversity index, and information capacity. The results showed that there were significant differences in the composition of call sequences among the three bat groups. The number of vocalizations was the highest in the mixed group, while the social call complexity was the highest in the all-male group, followed by the all-female group, and was the lowest in the mixed group. The results suggest that sex ratio potentially influence the vocal repertoire in Himalayan leaf-nosed bats. Our findings might provide a cue for vocalization research to investigate sex ratio in social groups as a potential driver for vocal complexity.

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“…Some studies have suggested that using a local conspecific call is most appropriate (Hill et al, 2015 ; Schöner et al, 2010 ), whereas others suggest a foreign and/or novel sound is more appropriate (Hill & Greenaway, 2005 ; Lintott et al, 2014 ; Quackenbush et al, 2016 ). However, even within a single region, the calls of some species can show considerable geographic variation (Sun et al, 2020 ) and many other factors are likely to be relevant, including the background bat activity when a lure is deployed (Lewanzik et al, 2019 ). In some cases, using conspecific calls has been unsuccessful in attracting the target species, having instead attracted other bats (Lintott et al, 2014 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of acoustic lures for increasing tropical forest understory bat captures

Aylen

Bishop

Wahab

et al. 2022

Ecology and Evolution

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Bats are the most diverse mammalian order second to rodents, with 1400+ species globally. In the tropics, it is possible to find more than 60 bat species at a single site. However, monitoring bats is challenging due to their small size, ability to fly, cryptic nature, and nocturnal activity. Recently, bioacoustic techniques have been incorporated into survey methods, either through passive acoustic monitoring or acoustic bat lures. Lures have been developed on the premise that broadcasting acoustic stimuli increases the number of captures in harp traps or mist nets. However, this is a relatively new, niche method. This study tested the efficacy of two commonly used acoustic bat lure devices, broadcasting two different acoustic stimuli, to increase forest understory bat captures in the tropics. This is the first time an acoustic bat lure has been systematically tested in a tropical rainforest, and the first study to compare two lure devices (Sussex AutoBat and Apodemus BatLure). Using a paired experimental design, two synthesized acoustic stimuli were broadcasted, a feeding call and a social call, to understand the importance of the call type used on capture rates and genus‐specific responses. Using an acoustic lure significantly increased capture rates, while the type of device did not impact capture rates. The two acoustic stimuli had an almost even distribution of captures, suggesting that the type of call may be less important than previously thought. Results indicate a possible deterrent effect on Rhinolophous sp., while being particularly effective for attracting bats in the genera Murina and Kerivoula . This study highlights the effectiveness of lures, however, also indicates that lure effects can vary across genera. Therefore, lures may bias survey results by altering the species composition of bats caught. Future research should focus on a single species or genus, using synthesized calls of conspecifics, to fully understand the effect of lures.

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Geographical variation of social calls and vocal discrimination in male Himalayan leaf-nosed bats

Cited by 10 publications

References 50 publications

Geographic Variation in Social Vocalizations of the Great Himalayan Leaf-Nosed Bat, Hipposideros armiger: Acoustic Overflow Across Population Boundaries

Geographic Variation in Social Vocalizations of the Great Himalayan Leaf-Nosed Bat, Hipposideros armiger: Acoustic Overflow Across Population Boundaries

Sex ratio potentially influence the complexity of social calls in Himalayan leaf-nosed bat groups

Effectiveness of acoustic lures for increasing tropical forest understory bat captures

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