The echolocation calls of bats are mainly used for navigation and foraging; however, they may als... more The echolocation calls of bats are mainly used for navigation and foraging; however, they may also contain social information about the emitter and facilitate social interactions. In this study, we recorded the echolocation calls of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and analyzed the acoustic parameter differences between the sexes and among individuals. Then, we performed habituation-discrimination playback experiments to test whether greater horseshoe bats could recognize the sex and individual identity of conspecifics from their echolocation calls. The results showed that there were significant differences in the echolocation call parameters between sexes and among individuals. When we switched playback files from a habituated stimuli to a dishabituated stimuli, the tested bats exhibited obvious behavioral responses, including nodding, ear or body movement, and echolocation emission. The results showed that R. ferrumequinum can recognize the sex and individual ide...
ABSTRACT One hundred and thirty-eight echolocation calls of 63 free-flying individuals of five ba... more ABSTRACT One hundred and thirty-eight echolocation calls of 63 free-flying individuals of five bat species (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Myotis formosus, Myotis ikonnikovi, Myotis daubentoni and Murina leucogaster) were recorded (by ultrasonic bat detector (D980)) in Zhi’an village of Jilin Province, China. According to the frequency-time spectra, these calls were categorized into two types: FM/CF (constant frequency) / FM (R. ferrumequinum) and FM (frequency modulated) (M. formosus, M. ikonnikovi, M. daubentoni and M. leucogaster). Sonograms of the calls of R. ferrumequinum could easily be distinguished from those of the other four species. For the calls of the remaining four species, six echolocation call parameters, including starting frequency, ending frequency, peak frequency duration, longest inter-pulse interval and shortest inter-pulse interval, were examined by stepwise discriminant analysis. The results show that 84.1% of calls were correctly classified, which indicates that these parameters of echolocation calls play an important role in identifying bat species. These parameters can be used to test the accuracy of general predictions based on bats’ morphology in the same forest and can provide essential information for assessing patterns of bat habitat use.
ABSTRACT Although evolutionary theory predicts that parents should discriminate between their own... more ABSTRACT Although evolutionary theory predicts that parents should discriminate between their own and others' offspring when levels of parental care are large, in some colonial breeding mammals, strong selective pressure would be expected to drive the evolution of mutual recognition between parents and offspring. Although less well studied than parental discrimination, in both birds and mammals, offspring discrimination of parents has also been documented. Nocturnal bats depend heavily on acoustic signals for communication, although little is known about whether bat pups can recognize their mothers based solely on maternal calls. We first investigated whether maternal calls of pomona leaf-nosed bats differ statistically among individuals. Then, we tested whether pups recognize their mothers' calls using a playback experiment. Echolocation pulses and directive calls of mother bats contain enough individual characteristics to allow for individual discrimination. Playback experiments showed that the pups responded with more vocalizations to playback of their own mother's versus another mother's directive calls, but not to playback of their own mother's versus another mother's echolocation pulses, suggesting that offspring can distinguish directive calls, but not echolocation pulses, of their own mother from those of other mothers. To our knowledge, this is the first study in which directive calls from bat mothers have been used to elicit vocalizations from pups and the first study to indicate that pups can recognize their mothers based solely on directive calls. These results advance our understanding of the function of acoustic signals in mothere-offspring recognition and the adaptive benefit of such communication, particularly the conditions under which a pup's recognition of its mother is critical.
Postnatal changes in flight development, wing shape and wing bone lengths of 56 marked neonate Hi... more Postnatal changes in flight development, wing shape and wing bone lengths of 56 marked neonate Hipposideros pomona were investigated under natural conditions in southwest China. Flight experiments showed that pups began to flutter with a short horizontal displacement at 10 days and first took flight at 19 days, with most achieving sustained flight at 1 month old. Analysis of covariance on wingspan, wing area, and the other seven wing characteristics between 'pre-flight' and 'post-volancy' periods supports the hypothesis that growth had one 'pre-flight' trajectory and a different 'post-volancy' trajectory in bats. Wingspan, handwing length and area, armwing length and area, and total wing area increased linearly until the age of first flight, after which the growth rates decreased (all P < 0.001). Wing loading declined linearly until day 19 before ultimately decreasing to adult levels (P < 0.001). Additionally, the relationship of different pairw...
Patterns of intraspecific geographic variation of signaling systems provide insight into the micr... more Patterns of intraspecific geographic variation of signaling systems provide insight into the microevolutionary processes driving phenotypic divergence. The acoustic calls of bats are sensitive to diverse evolutionary forces, but processes that shape call variation are largely unexplored. In China, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum displays a diverse call frequency and inhabits a heterogeneous landscape, presenting an excellent opportunity for this kind of research. We quantified geographic variation in resting frequency (RF) of echolocation calls, estimated genetic structure and phylogeny of R. ferrumequinum populations, and combined this with climatic factors to test three hypotheses to explain acoustic variation: genetic drift, cultural drift, and local adaptation. Our results demonstrated significant regional divergence in frequency and phylogeny among the bat populations in China&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s northeast (NE), central-east (CE) and southwest (SW) regions. The CE region had higher frequencies than the NE and SW regions. Drivers of RF divergence were estimated in the entire range and just the CE/NE region (since these two regions form a clade). In both cases, RF divergence was not correlated with mtDNA or nDNA genetic distance, but was significantly correlated with geographic distance and mean annual temperature, indicating cultural drift and ecological selection pressures are likely important in shaping RF divergence among different regions in China.
... on Lepidoptera in summer JIN Longru, FENG Jiang, SUN Keping, LIU Ying, WU Lei, LI Zhenxin &am... more ... on Lepidoptera in summer JIN Longru, FENG Jiang, SUN Keping, LIU Ying, WU Lei, LI Zhenxin & ZHANG Xichen ... Insect parts were identified primarily by using the Insect Classifica-tion (volumes 1, 2)[31]. The wing length of insects was measured (precision 1 mm). ...
... can significantly influence the estimates of growth parameters (Kunz and Robson, 1995). The t... more ... can significantly influence the estimates of growth parameters (Kunz and Robson, 1995). The two most common methods used to assess postnatal growth in the field are based on mark-recapture (longitudinal) sampling and grab (cross-sectional) sampling. Baptista et al. ...
The echolocation calls of bats are mainly used for navigation and foraging; however, they may als... more The echolocation calls of bats are mainly used for navigation and foraging; however, they may also contain social information about the emitter and facilitate social interactions. In this study, we recorded the echolocation calls of greater horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) and analyzed the acoustic parameter differences between the sexes and among individuals. Then, we performed habituation-discrimination playback experiments to test whether greater horseshoe bats could recognize the sex and individual identity of conspecifics from their echolocation calls. The results showed that there were significant differences in the echolocation call parameters between sexes and among individuals. When we switched playback files from a habituated stimuli to a dishabituated stimuli, the tested bats exhibited obvious behavioral responses, including nodding, ear or body movement, and echolocation emission. The results showed that R. ferrumequinum can recognize the sex and individual ide...
ABSTRACT One hundred and thirty-eight echolocation calls of 63 free-flying individuals of five ba... more ABSTRACT One hundred and thirty-eight echolocation calls of 63 free-flying individuals of five bat species (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Myotis formosus, Myotis ikonnikovi, Myotis daubentoni and Murina leucogaster) were recorded (by ultrasonic bat detector (D980)) in Zhi’an village of Jilin Province, China. According to the frequency-time spectra, these calls were categorized into two types: FM/CF (constant frequency) / FM (R. ferrumequinum) and FM (frequency modulated) (M. formosus, M. ikonnikovi, M. daubentoni and M. leucogaster). Sonograms of the calls of R. ferrumequinum could easily be distinguished from those of the other four species. For the calls of the remaining four species, six echolocation call parameters, including starting frequency, ending frequency, peak frequency duration, longest inter-pulse interval and shortest inter-pulse interval, were examined by stepwise discriminant analysis. The results show that 84.1% of calls were correctly classified, which indicates that these parameters of echolocation calls play an important role in identifying bat species. These parameters can be used to test the accuracy of general predictions based on bats’ morphology in the same forest and can provide essential information for assessing patterns of bat habitat use.
ABSTRACT Although evolutionary theory predicts that parents should discriminate between their own... more ABSTRACT Although evolutionary theory predicts that parents should discriminate between their own and others&#39; offspring when levels of parental care are large, in some colonial breeding mammals, strong selective pressure would be expected to drive the evolution of mutual recognition between parents and offspring. Although less well studied than parental discrimination, in both birds and mammals, offspring discrimination of parents has also been documented. Nocturnal bats depend heavily on acoustic signals for communication, although little is known about whether bat pups can recognize their mothers based solely on maternal calls. We first investigated whether maternal calls of pomona leaf-nosed bats differ statistically among individuals. Then, we tested whether pups recognize their mothers&#39; calls using a playback experiment. Echolocation pulses and directive calls of mother bats contain enough individual characteristics to allow for individual discrimination. Playback experiments showed that the pups responded with more vocalizations to playback of their own mother&#39;s versus another mother&#39;s directive calls, but not to playback of their own mother&#39;s versus another mother&#39;s echolocation pulses, suggesting that offspring can distinguish directive calls, but not echolocation pulses, of their own mother from those of other mothers. To our knowledge, this is the first study in which directive calls from bat mothers have been used to elicit vocalizations from pups and the first study to indicate that pups can recognize their mothers based solely on directive calls. These results advance our understanding of the function of acoustic signals in mothere-offspring recognition and the adaptive benefit of such communication, particularly the conditions under which a pup&#39;s recognition of its mother is critical.
Postnatal changes in flight development, wing shape and wing bone lengths of 56 marked neonate Hi... more Postnatal changes in flight development, wing shape and wing bone lengths of 56 marked neonate Hipposideros pomona were investigated under natural conditions in southwest China. Flight experiments showed that pups began to flutter with a short horizontal displacement at 10 days and first took flight at 19 days, with most achieving sustained flight at 1 month old. Analysis of covariance on wingspan, wing area, and the other seven wing characteristics between 'pre-flight' and 'post-volancy' periods supports the hypothesis that growth had one 'pre-flight' trajectory and a different 'post-volancy' trajectory in bats. Wingspan, handwing length and area, armwing length and area, and total wing area increased linearly until the age of first flight, after which the growth rates decreased (all P < 0.001). Wing loading declined linearly until day 19 before ultimately decreasing to adult levels (P < 0.001). Additionally, the relationship of different pairw...
Patterns of intraspecific geographic variation of signaling systems provide insight into the micr... more Patterns of intraspecific geographic variation of signaling systems provide insight into the microevolutionary processes driving phenotypic divergence. The acoustic calls of bats are sensitive to diverse evolutionary forces, but processes that shape call variation are largely unexplored. In China, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum displays a diverse call frequency and inhabits a heterogeneous landscape, presenting an excellent opportunity for this kind of research. We quantified geographic variation in resting frequency (RF) of echolocation calls, estimated genetic structure and phylogeny of R. ferrumequinum populations, and combined this with climatic factors to test three hypotheses to explain acoustic variation: genetic drift, cultural drift, and local adaptation. Our results demonstrated significant regional divergence in frequency and phylogeny among the bat populations in China&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s northeast (NE), central-east (CE) and southwest (SW) regions. The CE region had higher frequencies than the NE and SW regions. Drivers of RF divergence were estimated in the entire range and just the CE/NE region (since these two regions form a clade). In both cases, RF divergence was not correlated with mtDNA or nDNA genetic distance, but was significantly correlated with geographic distance and mean annual temperature, indicating cultural drift and ecological selection pressures are likely important in shaping RF divergence among different regions in China.
... on Lepidoptera in summer JIN Longru, FENG Jiang, SUN Keping, LIU Ying, WU Lei, LI Zhenxin &am... more ... on Lepidoptera in summer JIN Longru, FENG Jiang, SUN Keping, LIU Ying, WU Lei, LI Zhenxin & ZHANG Xichen ... Insect parts were identified primarily by using the Insect Classifica-tion (volumes 1, 2)[31]. The wing length of insects was measured (precision 1 mm). ...
... can significantly influence the estimates of growth parameters (Kunz and Robson, 1995). The t... more ... can significantly influence the estimates of growth parameters (Kunz and Robson, 1995). The two most common methods used to assess postnatal growth in the field are based on mark-recapture (longitudinal) sampling and grab (cross-sectional) sampling. Baptista et al. ...
Uploads