Acoustic signals play a crucial role in transmitting information and maintaining social stability in gregarious animals,especially in echolocating bats,which rely primarily on biological sonar for navigating in ...Acoustic signals play a crucial role in transmitting information and maintaining social stability in gregarious animals,especially in echolocating bats,which rely primarily on biological sonar for navigating in the dark.In the context of foraging without relying on tactile,visual or olfactory cues,acoustic signals convey information not only on food but also on ownership and defense of resources.However,studies on such information remain fragmentary.In the present study,we aim to document the social vocal repertoire of Myotis macrodactylus at natural foraging sites.Multiple acoustic analyses and spectrographic classification revealed a rich foraging vocal repertoire comprising 6 simple syllables and 2 composites.Discriminant function analyses associated with a subset-validation procedure provided an optimal method to spectrographically classify all recorded sounds into different syllable types.Multidimensional scaling of median values of multiple parameters further confirmed notable differences among these syllables in a 3-D space.In addition,Euclidean distance analysis showed that there were some spectral similarities between specific social vocal syllables and feeding buzzes,which implied a potential jamming role.Altogether,the data indicate that bats at foraging sites under natural conditions used variant social vocalizations with different functions in addition to echolocation calls,providing supporting evidence for further work on the function and vocal mechanisms of acoustic communication in mammals.展开更多
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.31770429,31370411 and 31670390)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(Grant No.2412016KJ045)+2 种基金the Overseas Famous Experts Project of the Ministry of Education of China(Grant No.MS2011DBSF023)the Program for Introducing Talents to Universities(Grant No.B16011)a grant for“1000 Talent Plan for High-Level Foreign Experts”from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee(Grant No.WQ20142200259).
文摘Acoustic signals play a crucial role in transmitting information and maintaining social stability in gregarious animals,especially in echolocating bats,which rely primarily on biological sonar for navigating in the dark.In the context of foraging without relying on tactile,visual or olfactory cues,acoustic signals convey information not only on food but also on ownership and defense of resources.However,studies on such information remain fragmentary.In the present study,we aim to document the social vocal repertoire of Myotis macrodactylus at natural foraging sites.Multiple acoustic analyses and spectrographic classification revealed a rich foraging vocal repertoire comprising 6 simple syllables and 2 composites.Discriminant function analyses associated with a subset-validation procedure provided an optimal method to spectrographically classify all recorded sounds into different syllable types.Multidimensional scaling of median values of multiple parameters further confirmed notable differences among these syllables in a 3-D space.In addition,Euclidean distance analysis showed that there were some spectral similarities between specific social vocal syllables and feeding buzzes,which implied a potential jamming role.Altogether,the data indicate that bats at foraging sites under natural conditions used variant social vocalizations with different functions in addition to echolocation calls,providing supporting evidence for further work on the function and vocal mechanisms of acoustic communication in mammals.
