Echolocating bats use future-target information for optimal foraging
Echolocating bats use future-target information for optimal foraging
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1515091113
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发表时间：
2016-04-26
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Hiryu, Shizuko
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Fujioka, Emyo;Aihara, Ikkyu;Hiryu, Shizuko
当我们看到或听到一个物体时，我们会把注意力对准它。在捕捉猎物时，许多动物物种会将视觉或听觉的注意力集中在猎物上。然而，对于多个猎物，有效觅食的注意方向和时间仍然未知。在这项研究中，我们采用了实验和数学方法，结合麦克风阵列测量和数学建模分析，量化了在野外反复捕捉空中昆虫的回声定位蝙蝠的注意力。在这里，我们展示了蝙蝠选择合理的飞行路线来连续捕获多个猎物。麦克风阵列的测量表明，蝙蝠不仅将声纳的注意力转移到紧邻的猎物上，还将注意力转移到下一个猎物上。此外，我们还发现，蝙蝠在飞行时的注意力也会指向下一个猎物，即使是在接近直接猎物的时候。数值模拟显示，蝙蝠可能会将飞行注意力转移到控制合适的飞行路线上，以便连续捕获。当蝙蝠只将飞行的注意力集中在它直接的猎物上时，它很少成功地捕捉到下一个猎物。这些发现表明，蝙蝠通过在多个目标之间分配注意力，并根据下一个猎物的额外信息规划未来的飞行路线，获得了更多的好处。这些实验和数学研究使我们能够观察蝙蝠在自然飞行动力学过程中的决策过程。
When seeing or listening to an object, we aim our attention toward it. While capturing prey, many animal species focus their visual or acoustic attention toward the prey. However, for multiple prey items, the direction and timing of attention for effective foraging remain unknown. In this study, we adopted both experimental and mathematical methodology with microphone-array measurements and mathematical modeling analysis to quantify the attention of echolocating bats that were repeatedly capturing airborne insects in the field. Here we show that bats select rational flight paths to consecutively capture multiple prey items. Microphone-array measurements showed that bats direct their sonar attention not only to the immediate prey but also to the next prey. In addition, we found that a bat's attention in terms of its flight also aims toward the next prey even when approaching the immediate prey. Numerical simulations revealed a possibility that bats shift their flight attention to control suitable flight paths for consecutive capture. When a bat only aims its flight attention toward its immediate prey, it rarely succeeds in capturing the next prey. These findings indicate that bats gain increased benefit by distributing their attention among multiple targets and planning the future flight path based on additional information of the next prey. These experimental and mathematical studies allowed us to observe the process of decision making by bats during their natural flight dynamics.