Social calls honestly signal female competitive ability in Asian particoloured bats

Publication Type:Journal Article
Year of Publication:2017
著者:Luo, Lu, Chen, Guo, Huang, Liu, Feng
Journal:Animal Behaviour
Volume:127
Pagination:101 - 108
Date Published:Jan-05-2017
ISSN:00033472
キーワード:aggressive interaction, bats, competitive ability echolocation, foraging, social call
要約:

Why a variety of social animals vocalize during agonistic foraging interactions remains obscure. One possibility is that these signals advertise the signaller's competitive ability, playing a role in the defence of food resources, yet there is limited evidence in support of this idea. Here, we used adult female Asian particoloured bats, Vespertilio sinensis, to test whether individual variation in competitive ability when foraging can be explained by social calls. Using synchronized infrared video and audio recording, we monitored bat social vocalizations, dominance rank and weight gain in triads under controlled food conditions. Additionally, subsequent playbacks, consisting of experimental stimuli, echolocation pulses and silence, were presented to feeding bats in a laboratory. Analyses showed that females uttered low-frequency social calls composed of one to five syllable types during feeding competition. The rates of social vocalizations increased with reduced food availability. Interestingly, dominance score and weight gain correlated weakly with body size, but positively with call rate and associated parameters. Playback of social calls inhibited the visits of bats to the focal food dish compared to playback of silence and echolocation pulses. The amount of food consumed was greatly reduced in the presence of experimental stimuli versus controls. Collectively, these results highlight that acoustic signals serve as an honest indicator of bat competitive ability.

URL:http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347217300842
DOI:10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.03.012
Short Title:Animal Behaviour
BioAcoustica ID: 
Taxonomic name: 
Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith