Vision Impairs the Abilities of Bats to Avoid Colliding with Stationary Obstacles
Vision Impairs the Abilities of Bats to Avoid Colliding with Stationary Obstacles
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0013912
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发表时间：
2010-11-09
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Fenton, Brock
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Orbach, Dara N.;Fenton, Brock
背景：自由飞行的食虫蝙蝠偶尔会与静止的物体相撞，它们应该很容易通过回声定位发现并避免。碰撞经常发生在发光的物体上，这表明环境光可能会有害地影响避障能力。我们测试了这样一种假设，即自由飞行的蝙蝠在遇到一些障碍物时可能会通过视觉来定向。我们还测试了声音干扰，如其他蝙蝠的“求救信号”是否导致碰撞的可能性。方法/主要发现：为了调查视觉线索在自由飞行的小棕色蝙蝠(Myotis Lucifugus)与静止物体碰撞中的作用，我们在蝙蝠成群时的高流量区域设置了障碍物。我们使用光强度和视觉上不同的障碍物的组合来验证蝙蝠是通过视觉来定向的。8月初，蝙蝠在光明中相撞的频率比在黑暗中更高，相撞的概率因障碍物的能见度而异。然而，碰撞的可能性在8月中旬到下旬发生了变化，这与蜂群和交配期间发生的行为、激素和生理变化的开始是一致的。求救信号没有分散蝙蝠的注意力，也没有增加碰撞的发生率。结论/意义：我们的发现表明，视觉线索对自由飞行的蝙蝠来说比之前认识到的更重要，这表明在定向过程中整合了多个感官模式。此外，我们的研究突出了圈养蝙蝠和野生蝙蝠反应的差异，表明需要进行更多的野外实验。
Background: Free-flying insectivorous bats occasionally collide with stationary objects they should easily detect by echolocation and avoid. Collisions often occur with lighted objects, suggesting ambient light may deleteriously affect obstacle avoidance capabilities. We tested the hypothesis that free-flying bats may orient by vision when they collide with some obstacles. We additionally tested whether acoustic distractions, such as "distress calls'' of other bats, contributed to probabilities of collision.Methodology/Principal Findings: To investigate the role of visual cues in the collisions of free-flying little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) with stationary objects, we set up obstacles in an area of high bat traffic during swarming. We used combinations of light intensities and visually dissimilar obstacles to verify that bats orient by vision. In early August, bats collided more often in the light than the dark, and probabilities of collision varied with the visibility of obstacles. However, the probabilities of collisions altered in mid to late August, coincident with the start of behavioural, hormonal, and physiological changes occurring during swarming and mating. Distress calls did not distract bats and increase the incidence of collisions.Conclusions/Significance: Our findings indicate that visual cues are more important for free-flying bats than previously recognized, suggesting integration of multi-sensory modalities during orientation. Furthermore, our study highlights differences between responses of captive and wild bats, indicating a need for more field experiments.