Experimental evidence for group hunting via eavesdropping in echolocating bats
Experimental evidence for group hunting via eavesdropping in echolocating bats
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2009.0473
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发表时间：
2009-08-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Wikelski, Martin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Dechmann, Dina K. N.;Heucke, Silke L.;Wikelski, Martin
群体觅食被认为是社会性进化的一个重要因素。然而，视觉线索主要用于获取群体成员在日常觅食动物(如鸟类)中觅食成功的信息，在鸟类等群体觅食研究最深入的动物中。相比之下，夜间活动的动物，如蝙蝠，将不得不依靠其他线索或信号来协调觅食。我们研究了回声定位叫声在食虫蝙蝠夜蛾中无意中产生的社会觅食线索所起的作用。这一物种的雌性成群结队地生活，在水体中觅食成群的昆虫，每天的活动期极短。我们预测并证实：(I)自由活动的蝙蝠被猎物捕获过程中产生的回声定位叫声的回放所吸引，(Ii)同一社会单位的蝙蝠在发现猎物时通过改变群体成员的回声定位叫声来共同觅食，从而受益于被动的信息传递。对高分辨率自动无线电遥测的网络分析证实，小组成员在94%+/-6%的时间里飞行在预测的最大听力距离内。因此，回声定位呼叫也可以作为种内交流的线索。社会性似乎允许更有效的群体觅食策略，通过窃听夜间哺乳动物群体成员的声音线索。
Group foraging has been suggested as an important factor for the evolution of sociality. However, visual cues are predominantly used to gain information about group members' foraging success in diurnally foraging animals such as birds, where group foraging has been studied most intensively. By contrast, nocturnal animals, such as bats, would have to rely on other cues or signals to coordinate foraging. We investigated the role of echolocation calls as inadvertently produced cues for social foraging in the insectivorous bat Noctilio albiventris. Females of this species live in small groups, forage over water bodies for swarming insects and have an extremely short daily activity period. We predicted and confirmed that (i) free-ranging bats are attracted by playbacks of echolocation calls produced during prey capture, and that (ii) bats of the same social unit forage together to benefit from passive information transfer via the change in group members' echolocation calls upon finding prey. Network analysis of high-resolution automated radio telemetry confirmed that group members flew within the predicted maximum hearing distance 94+/-6 per cent of the time. Thus, echolocation calls also serve as intraspecific communication cues. Sociality appears to allow for more effective group foraging strategies via eavesdropping on acoustical cues of group members in nocturnal mammals.