An annotated dataset of Egyptian fruit bat vocalizations across varying contexts and during vocal ontogeny

Abstract

Animal acoustic communication research depends on our ability to record the vocal behaviour of different species. Only rarely do we have the opportunity to continuously follow the vocal behaviour of a group of individuals of the same species for a long period of time. Here, we provide a database of Egyptian fruit bat vocalizations, which were continuously recorded in the lab in several groups simultaneously for more than a year. The dataset includes almost 300,000 files, a few seconds each, containing social vocalizations and representing the complete vocal repertoire used by the bats in the experiment period. Around 90,000 files are annotated with details about the individuals involved in the vocal interactions, their behaviours and the context. Moreover, the data include the complete vocal ontogeny of pups, from birth to adulthood, in different conditions (e.g., isolated or in a group). We hope that this comprehensive database will stimulate studies that will enhance our understanding of bat, and mammal, social vocal communication.

Behaviour, biology, and evolution of vocal learning in bats

“…Another example of vocal learning involves Egyptian fruit bats, Rousettus aegyptiacus, a species in the family Pteropodidae, which uses lingual echolocation (tongue clicks) to enter and roost in caves and while foraging [62,63]. This species has multiple call types in its repertoire [10] and often emits vocalisations during agonistic interactions in the roost [64]. Bats reared alone with their mothers take 5 months longer for their calls to converge on the spectral norm of adults than bats reared in a group [65].…”

“…While birds are some of the most accomplished and well-studied vocal learners, Aves is separated from Mammalia by ~300 million years of evolution, leading to substantial morphological (syrinx vs. larynx), neurobiological (nuclear pallium vs. layered neocortex), and genetic differences. Unlike many terrestrial mammals, bats are highly vocal and often have extensive vocal repertoires [7][8][9][10][11]. Many are also highly social [12] and exhibit various degrees of social complexity [13].…”

BioCPPNet: Automatic Bioacoustic Source Separation with Deep Neural Networks

“…We investigate a set of species with dissimilar vocal behaviors in terms of spectral and temporal properties. We apply BioCPPNet to a macaque coo call dataset 37 consisting of 7285 coos produced by 8 unique individuals; a bottlenose dolphin signature whistle dataset 38 comprised of 400 signature whistles generated by 20 individuals, of which we randomly select 8 for the purposes of this study; and an Egyptian fruit bat vocalization dataset 39 containing a heterogeneous distribution of individuals, call types, and call contexts. In the case of the bat dataset, we extract the data (31399 calls) corresponding to the 15 most heavily represented individual bats, reserving 12 individuals (27586 calls) to address the closed speaker regime and the remaining 3 individuals (3813 calls) to evaluate model performance in the open speaker scenario.…”

Animals Have No Language, and Humans Are Animals Too

“…Vocalizations emitted by four different species (top to bottom): Egyptian fruit bat ( Rousettus aegyptiacus ), giant otter ( Pteronura brasiliensis ), human ( Homo sapiens ), and zebra finch ( Taeniopygia guttata ), in four different contexts (left to right): begging/isolation, calls emitted by young animals; close contact, emitted during interactions between individuals in very close proximity; distress-alarm, emitted during stressful or fear-inducing events; and mating calls, emitted during or around copulation. Recording source: R. aegyptiacus data published in Prat, Taub, Pratt, and Yovel (2017) and personal recording (mating call); P. brasiliensis data published in Mumm and Knörnschild (2014) and Christina A. S. Mumm (personal communication); H. sapiens , personal recording of begging/isolation (baby crying) and close contact (speech), and data published in Anikin and Persson (2017) for distress-alarm (fear-induced scream) and mating (copulation); T. guttata data published in Elie and Theunissen (2015b).…”