Tight coordination of aerial flight maneuvers and sonar call production in insectivorous bats

Falk, Benjamin; Kasnadi, Joseph; Moss, Cynthia F.

doi:10.1242/jeb.122283

Cited by 18 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…Nose and nostril morphology are also influenced by respiratory and thermoregulatory demands [77], though how these demands interact with sniffing and olfaction is still unclear. In bats, the respiratory cycle is closely related to the wing-beat cycle, and echolocation pulses are generally emitted during expiration [83][84][85]. Sniffing, or bouts of increased air intake, is often associated with exposure to olfactory stimuli.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of ecology in shaping external nasal morphology in bats and implications for olfactory tracking

Brokaw

Smotherman

2020

PLoS ONE

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Many animals display morphological adaptations of the nose that improve their ability to detect and track odors. Bilateral odor sampling improves an animals' ability to navigate using olfaction and increased separation of the nostrils facilitates olfactory source localization. Many bats use odors to find food and mates and bats display an elaborate diversity of facial features. Prior studies have quantified how variations in facial features correlate with echolocation and feeding ecology, but surprisingly none have asked whether bat noses might be adapted for olfactory tracking in flight. We predicted that bat species that rely upon odor cues while foraging would have greater nostril separation in support of olfactory tropotaxis. Using museum specimens, we measured the external nose and cranial morphology of 40 New World bat species. Diet had a significant effect on external nose morphology, but contrary to our predictions, insectivorous bats had the largest relative separation of nostrils, while nectar feeding species had the narrowest nostril widths. Furthermore, nasal echolocating bats had significantly narrower nostrils than oral emitting bats, reflecting a potential trade-off between sonar pulse emission and stereo-olfaction in those species. To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the evolutionary interactions between olfaction and echolocation in shaping the external morphology of a facial feature using modern phylogenetic comparative methods. Future work pairing olfactory morphology with tracking behavior will provide more insight into how animals such as bats integrate olfactory information while foraging.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of ecology in shaping external nasal morphology in bats and implications for olfactory tracking

Brokaw

Smotherman

2020

PLoS ONE

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“…Echoic navigation was obvious when the bats flew ( Figure 5.2), presumably being used to avoid the fly mesh walls (Falk et al, 2015), but is in contrast to previous accounts on N. gouldi in the laboratory, where bats flew in silence . The presence of echolocation during encounters with silent prey may also simply reflect detection of the background (arena walls or floor).…”

Section: Acoustic Strategies Of Terrestrial Predation By Nyctophiluscontrasting

confidence: 88%

An Investigation on the Ecological Significance of the Terrestrial Context in Predator-Prey Interactions between Echolocating Bats and the Australian Field Cricket (Teleogryllus spp.)

Kibedi¹

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The Australian field cricket has been a model system for addressing the behavioural and acoustic interaction between echolocating bats and their insect prey. This understanding is based largely on inferences from aerial encounters. However, there is much evidence for terrestrial associations, wherein models of interaction between predator and prey do not apply. Moreover, the ecological significance of the ground environment likely plays an important extrinsic role in shaping the animals' behaviours, especially for the prey's (unknown) response. In Australia, Teleogryllus crickets occur widely and in sympatry with a number of bats well-suited for terrestrial foraging. This dissertation aimed to investigate the interactions between Australian bats and crickets, with an emphasis on elucidating how the terrestrial setting has shaped their association. These experiments established that N. gouldi and N. bifax are very capable, agile and precise in preying on these large, hard-bodied insects, readily using surface capture techniques (gleaning/perch hunting). Their foraging was independent of prey type (moths and crickets), suggesting this hunting strategy is utilised to exploit available food in a context-rather than prey-dependent manner. Passive localisation was consistently evidenced, based on measurements of last detected emission prior to contact with attacked insects. However, the duration of this silent period was highly variable so their acoustic repertoire may be quite dynamic. The inactivity of T. commodus during live interactions with bats potentially reflects generalised avoidance strategy; remaining immobile to minimise detection. Active responses were however, elicited upon direct attack from a bat; crickets consistently performed a rapid, powerful startle response. This escape behaviour therefore constitutes the late-stage, emergency response to bat predation, and one that would be sufficient and highly effective for evasion of bat attacks in the cluttered setting of the terrestrial environment.These findings support that context is an important factor for influencing the terrestrial interactions between T. commodus and echolocating bats. The environment poses limitations for both animals in their capacity to detect and respond to one another. Whilst bats may be well-adapted for such encounters, in close engagements the terrestrial setting may play to the benefit of the prey.iv

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“…Bats dynamically adjust PD to avoid the overlap between incoming echoes and the outgoing sonar call. In addition, bats can also adjust the PI of sonar calls to avoid ambiguity of echo assignment over successive calls (Moss and Surlykke, 2001;Schnitzler and Kalko, 2001;Wilson and Moss, 2004;Falk et al, 2015). In our study, only the predictability of target motion was manipulated across trials and days.…”

Section: Temporal Patterning Of Sonar Sounds May Sharpen Localizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Insectivorous bats reduce the interval between sonar calls as the distance to prey decreases Kalko and Schnitzler, 1989;Moss and Surlykke, 2001), and embedded in foraging call sequences are sonar sound groups (SSGs), which are defined as clusters of echolocation signals at comparatively short and stable pulse intervals, flanked by signals at longer intervals (Moss and Surlykke, 2001;Moss et al, 2006;Kothari et al, 2014). The production of SSGs is an adaptive sonar behavior that has been reported in both laboratory and field studies of bat echolocation, in free-flying animals (Surlykke and Moss, 2000;Moss and Surlykke, 2001;Moss et al, 2006;Petrites et al, 2009;Kothari et al, 2014;Sändig et al, 2014;Falk et al, 2015;Wheeler et al, 2016) and those tracking moving prey from a stationary position (Aytekin et al, 2010;Kothari et al, 2014). Past studies have shown that bats temporally cluster echolocation calls to produce SSGs when they are engaged in tasks that require higher spatiotemporal resolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive sonar call timing supports target tracking in echolocating bats

Kothari

Wohlgemuth

Moss

2018

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Echolocating bats dynamically adapt the features of their sonar calls as they approach obstacles and track targets. As insectivorous bats forage, they increase sonar call rate with decreasing prey distance, and often embedded in bat insect approach sequences are clusters of sonar sounds, termed sonar sound groups (SSGs). The bat's production of SSGs has been observed in both field and laboratory conditions, and is hypothesized to sharpen spatiotemporal sonar resolution. When insectivorous bats hunt, they may encounter erratically moving prey, which increases the demands on the bat's sonar imaging system. Here, we studied the bat's adaptive vocal behavior in an experimentally controlled insect-tracking task, allowing us to manipulate the predictability of target trajectories and measure the prevalence of SSGs. With this system, we trained bats to remain stationary on a platform and track a moving prey item, whose trajectory was programmed either to approach the bat, or to move back and forth, before arriving at the bat. We manipulated target motion predictability by varying the order in which different target trajectories were presented to the bats. During all trials, we recorded the bat's sonar calls and later analysed the incidence of SSG production during the different target tracking conditions. Our results demonstrate that bats increase the production of SSGs when target unpredictability increases, and decrease the production of SSGs when target motion predictability increases. Furthermore, bats produce the same number of sonar vocalizations irrespective of the target motion predictability, indicating that the animal's temporal clustering of sonar call sequences to produce SSGs is purposeful, and therefore involves sensorimotor planning.

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Tight coordination of aerial flight maneuvers and sonar call production in insectivorous bats

Cited by 18 publications

References 49 publications

Role of ecology in shaping external nasal morphology in bats and implications for olfactory tracking

Role of ecology in shaping external nasal morphology in bats and implications for olfactory tracking

An Investigation on the Ecological Significance of the Terrestrial Context in Predator-Prey Interactions between Echolocating Bats and the Australian Field Cricket (Teleogryllus spp.)

Adaptive sonar call timing supports target tracking in echolocating bats

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