Response of Eptesicus fuscus and Nycticeius humeralis to social call playback in North Carolina
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Rebecca D. Malin (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Matina Kalcounis-Rüppell
Abstract: Vocal communication is important for several bat behaviors, including navigation, foraging, and information transfer between individuals. This study sought to identify the responses of two temperate species of echolocating bats, big brown (Eptesicus fuscus) and evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis), to broadcasts of specific recorded bat social calls. Previous laboratory research on bat vocalizations suggest that certain social calls serve a group cohesion function, and other types of calls are associated with foraging. I hypothesized that broadcasts of recorded vocalizations containing upsweep and downsweep social calls would evoke increased levels of echolocation vocalizations and social calls. Further, broadcasts of vocalizations containing complex multi-pulse calls, would evoke increased production of foraging vocalizations. To test these hypotheses, trials were set up to monitor the responses of free-ranging bats to recorded playbacks of different types of bat vocalizations for three one-minute phases: pre-broadcast, during broadcast, and post-broadcast. Contrary to my hypothesis, the playback of evening bat social calls decreased responses with echolocation vocalizations, suggesting that these social calls might be used for group cohesion by repelling heterospecifics. Playback of big brown bat upsweep social calls increased social call production responses, but not foraging or navigation vocalizations, supporting the hypothesis that upsweep calls function in group cohesion. Big brown and evening bat echolocation broadcasts led to a decrease in echolocation responses. These results indicate that the type of vocalization produced evokes different responses in bats, and that passive monitoring can be used to unveil group dynamics in a field setting.
Response of Eptesicus fuscus and Nycticeius humeralis to social call playback in North Carolina
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Created on 5/1/2020
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2020
- Keywords
- Big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus, Evening bat, Nycticeius humeralis, Playback, Social Calls
- Subjects
- Vespertilionidae $x Vocalization
- Big brown bat $x Vocalization
- Bat sounds