Little Brown Bats (<i>Myotis lucifugus</i>) Recognize Individual Identity of Conspecifics Using Sonar Calls

Kazial, Karry A.; Kenny, Tammy L.; Burnett, Stephen C.

doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01483.x

Cited by 56 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 62 publications

(110 reference statements)

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“…Interpreting results of experiments on individual recognition is controversial because of semantic disagreements, ecologically or evolutionarily irrelevant methodology, and the difficulty of knowing how animals process stimuli (14,(22)(23)(24). Although cognition is often inferred, it remains unclear how, for example, a honey bee's preference for nectar under a photograph of a human face reflects underlying intelligence (25,26).…”

Section: Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans

Levey

Londoño

Ungvari‐Martin

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

100

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Practically all animals are affected by humans, especially in urban areas. Although most species respond negatively to urbanization, some thrive in human-dominated settings. A central question in urban ecology is why some species adapt well to the presence of humans and others do not. We show that Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos) nesting on the campus of a large university rapidly learn to assess the level of threat posed by different humans, and to respond accordingly. In a controlled experiment, we found that as the same human approached and threatened a nest on 4 successive days, mockingbirds flushed from their nest at increasingly greater distances from that human. A different human approaching and threatening the nest identically on the fifth day elicited the same response as the first human on the first day. Likewise, alarm calls and attack flights increased from days 1-4 with the first human, and decreased on day 5 with the second human. These results demonstrate a remarkable ability of a passerine bird to distinguish one human from thousands of others. Also, mockingbirds learned to identify individual humans extraordinarily quickly: after only 2 30-s exposures of the human at the nest. More generally, the varying responses of mockingbirds to intruders suggests behavioral flexibility and a keen awareness of different levels of threat posed by individuals of another species: traits that may predispose mockingbirds and other species of urban wildlife to successful exploitation of human-dominated environments.individual recognition ͉ nest defense ͉ nest predation ͉ urban ecology ͉ urban wildlife M ore than half of the world's human population lives in urban environments (1). Both the proportion and total number of humans in cities are expected to grow, increasingly impacting wildlife (2-6). It is often obvious why some nondomesticated species are negatively affected by urbanization (e.g., habitat destruction) (5, 7). Much more puzzling is how other species have been able to adjust to the presence of humans and become ''urban exploiters' ' (3, 5, 8). Among birds, behavioral flexibility and innovation are hypothesized predictors of success in urban environments (5, 7, 9). Such hypotheses are notoriously difficult to test with controlled experiments.Nesting behavior provides an opportunity to test reactions of birds to humans in an unusually standardized manner. Nest predation is especially important, because eggs and nestlings are highly vulnerable; for passerine species, most mortality occurs in the nest (10, 11). Also, defense behavior is costly, because it entails risks to the parents, detracts from their foraging time, and draws attention to the nest (12). Therefore, the ability of a species to recognize and respond appropriately to different types of nest predators in a new environment may help explain why some species are able to successfully reproduce among humans and others are not. We experimentally tested the hypothesis that Northern Mockingbirds, an abundant species in urban settings of eas...

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Section: Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans

Levey

Londoño

Ungvari‐Martin

et al. 2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

100

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“…hunting and roosting) and refer to the former as 'social information'. Vocal signatures in bat echolocation calls can encode information ranging from species identity [18,19], age [20,21] and sex [22,23] to group affiliation [21,24] and individual identity [25][26][27] of the calling bat. However, it is still controversial as to what extent this social information is actually exploited by eavesdropping conspecifics [11,17,28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat echolocation calls facilitate social communication

et al. 2012

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Bat echolocation is primarily used for orientation and foraging but also holds great potential for social communication. The communicative function of echolocation calls is still largely unstudied, especially in the wild. Eavesdropping on vocal signatures encoding social information in echolocation calls has not, to our knowledge, been studied in free-living bats so far. We analysed echolocation calls of the polygynous bat Saccopteryx bilineata and found pronounced vocal signatures encoding sex and individual identity. We showed experimentally that free-living males discriminate approaching male and female conspecifics solely based on their echolocation calls. Males always produced aggressive vocalizations when hearing male echolocation calls and courtship vocalizations when hearing female echolocation calls; hence, they responded with complex social vocalizations in the appropriate social context. Our study demonstrates that social information encoded in bat echolocation calls plays a crucial and hitherto underestimated role for eavesdropping conspecifics and thus facilitates social communication in a highly mobile nocturnal mammal.

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“…However, it remains to be determined whether or not the individualspecificity represents individual signatures, allowing bats to identify individuals acoustically. Previous in-depth analysis of the vocal signature of bats has focused on their echolocation calls ͑Masters et Obrist, 1995;Kazial et al, 2001;Fenton et al, 1999;Siemers and Kerth, 2006;Kazial et al, 2008aKazial et al, , 2008bYovel et al, 2009a. The echolocation calls of the big brown bat ͑Eptesicus fuscus͒ have been shown to differ among individuals within a family and between adults and juveniles ͑Masters et al, 1995; Kazial et al, 2001͒.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication calls of little brown bats display individual-specific characteristics

Melendez

Feng

2010

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Bats' echolocation signals have been shown to be situation-, colony-, and individual-specific, but whether or not these findings apply to bats' communication signals is not fully understood. The primary goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that the communication calls of adult little brown bats ͑Myotis lucifugus͒ are individual specific. Bats were paired to form focal pairs from June 2007 to August 2008. Each bat's vocalizations were recorded on a PC-based digital recorder with a custom made ultrasonic microphone. The vocal signals were first classified using a previously established classification scheme. Three acoustic parameters ͑the minimum and maximum frequencies, and the call duration͒ of two of the dominant call-types, the steep-FM and broadband noise bursts, of individual bats were further analyzed. Discriminant function analysis, and multiand univariate analyses of variance of these parameters revealed that these vocal signals were individually distinct and likely contain individual signatures to allow bats to identify individuals acoustically.

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Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) Recognize Individual Identity of Conspecifics Using Sonar Calls

Cited by 56 publications

References 62 publications

Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans

Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans

Bat echolocation calls facilitate social communication

Communication calls of little brown bats display individual-specific characteristics

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