Silence and reduced echolocation during flight are associated with social behaviors in male hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus).

ABSTRACT: Bats are renowned for their sophisticated echolocation. However, recent research has indicated that bats may be less reliant on echolocation than has long been assumed. To test the hypothesis that bats reduce their use of echolocation to avoid eavesdropping by conspecifics, we deployed miniature tags that recorded ultrasound and accelerations on 10 wild hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) for one or two nights. This resulted in 997 10-s recordings. Bats switched between periods predominated by their typical high-intensity echolocation, or periods predominated by micro calls (unusually short, quiet calls), or no detectable calls ("silence"). Periods of high-intensity echolocation included high rates of feeding buzzes, whereas periods of micro calls and silence included high rates of social inter

SUBMITTER: Corcoran AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8452715 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature