Frugivorous bats evaluate the quality of social information when choosing novel foods
Frugivorous bats evaluate the quality of social information when choosing novel foods
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DOI：
10.1093/beheco/aru120
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发表时间：
2014-09-01
影响因子：
2.4
通讯作者：
Page, Rachel A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Teague O'Mara, M.;Dechmann, Dina K. N.;Page, Rachel A.
对于利用社交线索来决定何时、何地以及吃什么的动物来说，区分来自多个社会伙伴的信息质量的能力可能至关重要。这对于依赖短暂且广泛分散的资源的物种来说可能尤其重要。我们发现，制作帐篷的蝙蝠（Uroderma bilobatum）通过与圈养和自然栖息地的室友互动，在社会上获得了对新奇食物的偏好，并且这些食物线索可以影响室友的决定至少几天。更重要的是，这些蝙蝠可以区分带回栖息地的两种不同线索的质量和信息内容。没有经验的人更喜欢被室友吃过的食物，而不是那些气味只存在于吃过糖水的室友皮毛上的食物。蝙蝠辨别呼吸和皮毛气味的能力可能使它们能够选择关于分散资源的存在或更新可用性的最具信息性的线索。这种选择性可能有助于稳定作为信息中心的栖息地，以社会获取有关不可预测和广泛分布的食品的最新信息。
The ability to discriminate information quality from multiple social partners may be essential to animals that use social cues in deciding when, where, and what to eat. This may be particularly important in species that rely on ephemeral and widely dispersed resources. We show that tent-making bats, Uroderma bilobatum, socially acquire preferences for novel foods through interactions with roostmates both in captivity and in natural roosts and that these food cues can influence roostmates' decisions at least for several days. More importantly, these bats can distinguish between the quality and information content of 2 different cues that are brought back to their roost. Inexperienced individuals prefer food that has been consumed by a roostmate to food whose odor is present only on the fur of a roostmate that has eaten sugar water. The ability of bats to discriminate odors on breath and fur may allow them to select the most informative cues about the presence or renewed availability of dispersed resources. This selectivity may help stabilize roosts as information centers for the social acquisition of updated information on unpredictable and widely distributed food items.