Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures
Summary: Active sensing animals such as echolocating bats produce the energy with which they probe their environment. The intense echolocation calls of bats are energetically expensive, but their cost can be reduced by synchronizing the exhalations needed to vocalize to wingbeats. Here, we use sound...
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Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221008646 |
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doaj-63207d73bb1a478095974aa3ecee53062021-08-22T04:30:43ZengElsevieriScience2589-00422021-08-01248102896Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey capturesLaura Stidsholt0Mark Johnson1Holger R. Goerlitz2Peter T. Madsen3Zoophysiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Corresponding authorAarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DenmarkAcoustic and Functional Ecology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, GermanyZoophysiology, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DenmarkSummary: Active sensing animals such as echolocating bats produce the energy with which they probe their environment. The intense echolocation calls of bats are energetically expensive, but their cost can be reduced by synchronizing the exhalations needed to vocalize to wingbeats. Here, we use sound-and-movement recording tags to investigate how wild bats balance efficient sound production with information needs during foraging and navigation. We show that wild bats prioritize energy efficiency over sensory flow when periodic snapshots of the acoustic scene are sufficient during travel and search. Rapid calls during tracking and interception of close prey are decoupled from the wingbeat but are weaker and comprise <2% of all calls during a night of hunting. The limited use of fast sonar sampling provides bats with high information update rates during critical hunting moments but adds little to their overall costs of sound production despite the inefficiency of decoupling calls from wingbeats.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221008646biological sciencesecologyenvironmental scienceethologyzoology |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Laura Stidsholt Mark Johnson Holger R. Goerlitz Peter T. Madsen |
spellingShingle |
Laura Stidsholt Mark Johnson Holger R. Goerlitz Peter T. Madsen Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures iScience biological sciences ecology environmental science ethology zoology |
author_facet |
Laura Stidsholt Mark Johnson Holger R. Goerlitz Peter T. Madsen |
author_sort |
Laura Stidsholt |
title |
Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures |
title_short |
Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures |
title_full |
Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures |
title_fullStr |
Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures |
title_sort |
wild bats briefly decouple sound production from wingbeats to increase sensory flow during prey captures |
publisher |
Elsevier |
series |
iScience |
issn |
2589-0042 |
publishDate |
2021-08-01 |
description |
Summary: Active sensing animals such as echolocating bats produce the energy with which they probe their environment. The intense echolocation calls of bats are energetically expensive, but their cost can be reduced by synchronizing the exhalations needed to vocalize to wingbeats. Here, we use sound-and-movement recording tags to investigate how wild bats balance efficient sound production with information needs during foraging and navigation. We show that wild bats prioritize energy efficiency over sensory flow when periodic snapshots of the acoustic scene are sufficient during travel and search. Rapid calls during tracking and interception of close prey are decoupled from the wingbeat but are weaker and comprise <2% of all calls during a night of hunting. The limited use of fast sonar sampling provides bats with high information update rates during critical hunting moments but adds little to their overall costs of sound production despite the inefficiency of decoupling calls from wingbeats. |
topic |
biological sciences ecology environmental science ethology zoology |
url |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221008646 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT laurastidsholt wildbatsbrieflydecouplesoundproductionfromwingbeatstoincreasesensoryflowduringpreycaptures AT markjohnson wildbatsbrieflydecouplesoundproductionfromwingbeatstoincreasesensoryflowduringpreycaptures AT holgerrgoerlitz wildbatsbrieflydecouplesoundproductionfromwingbeatstoincreasesensoryflowduringpreycaptures AT petertmadsen wildbatsbrieflydecouplesoundproductionfromwingbeatstoincreasesensoryflowduringpreycaptures |
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