Social calls influence the foraging behavior in wild big-footed myotis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Why a variety of social animals emit foraging-associated calls during group foraging remains an open question. These vocalizations may be used to recruit conspecifics to food patches (i.e. food advertisement hypothesis) or defend food resources against competitors (food defence hypothesis), presumably depending on food availability. Insectivorous bats rely heavily on vocalizations for navigation, foraging, and social interactions. In this study, we used free-ranging big-footed myotis (Myotis macrodactylus Temminck, 1840) to test whether social calls produced in a foraging context serve to advertise food patches or to ward off food competitors. Using a combination of acoustic recordings, playback experiments with adult females and dietary monitoring (light trapping and DN

SUBMITTER: Guo D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7791762 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature