After working on RAVEN and discovering that individual birds within a species have distinct song types, I was curious to find out if bats have distinct calls between individuals.
In this article,15,103 calls from 5 pairs of adult male little brown bats were studied using two forms of analysis: Discriminant function analysis (DFA) and multivariate analysis of variance(MANOVA). DFA, I learned, defines whether or not calls can identify the bat individually.MANOVA defines whether or not the calls are the same. They studied, much like our lab, the minimum and maximum frequencies, and the call duration of two calls the bats made. These calls included the broadband noiseburst(BNB)and the steep-FM (StFM).
Thirty sample calls, from each song type, per bat were analyzed. Data showed that all three measurements being used to analyze the calls could differentiate StFM calls of specific individual little brown bats. BNB calls could be differentiated between individuals using duration and maximum frequency measurements.
The conclusion was that yes, there are distinct differences between the same type of call per male little brown bat. What is still to be learned, is whether or not these differences are recognized between individuals within the species and social group they're in. Do their behaviors between one another show a response to the differences in their calls?
Posted by Shyla Morsbach (2)
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ReplyDeleteThese is some good findings. I didnt know bats actually had specific songs or calls like birds. what do you mean by MANOVA defines whether or not the calls are the same... Do you mean call repertoire? do you know if its possible that different calls can be used in detecting their surroundings rather than trying to communicate with other bats?
ReplyDeleteWow, it’s really interesting to learn about another species that exhibits differences in calls. As you mentioned, it would be cool to see if nearby bats respond to these differences. The researchers could try conducing playback experiments, allowing them to see any alterations in the behavior of the receivers. Did the researchers provide information about the context of the calls in the experiment?
ReplyDeletePosted by Katie Kalutkiewicz
Thats pretty interesting. If individual bats have different calls then it would be a cool follow up experiment to see if the bats recognized individuals by thier calls within social groups.
ReplyDeleteThats pretty interesting. If individual bats have different calls then it would be a cool follow up experiment to see if the bats recognized individuals by thier calls within social groups.
ReplyDeletePosted by Charles Carville
I wonder how wide the spectra is for different species of bats to pick up on slightly different signals (much like our dialect differences). Do you think it is advantageous for animals to be able to interprete many species' signals?
ReplyDeleteAhmed sandakli