Echolocating bats detect but misperceive a multidimensional incongruent acoustic stimulus

Danilovich, Sasha; Shalev, Gal; Boonman, Arjan; Goldshtein, Aya; Yovel, Yossi

doi:10.1073/pnas.2005009117

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…where the gaze direction is the same as the direction of reflected light 25 . Thus, together with previous studies that presented how echolocating bats misperceive objects 26 , our data demonstrate how different information from visually perceived objects can be to information perceived via sound. Consequently, for understanding the behavior of a bat flying through an obstacle course, not only the direction of emitted pulses but also the location of generated echo incidence points should be considered at the same time.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Visualization of bat “echo space” using acoustic simulation

Teshima¹,

Yamada²,

Tsuchiya³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Behavioral experiments with acoustic measurements have revealed the intriguing strategies of flight navigation and the use of ultrasound by echolocating bats in various environments. However, the echolocation behavior of bats has not been thoroughly investigated in regard to the environment they perceive via echolocation because it is technically difficult to measure all the echoes that reach the bats during flight, even with the conventional telemetry microphones currently in use. Therefore, we attempted to reproduce the echoes of bats during flight by combining acoustic simulation and behavioral experiments with acoustic measurements. As a result, we visualized the spatiotemporal changes in the echo incidence points detected by bats during flight, which enabled us to investigate the “echo space” revealed through echolocation. In addition, we could observe how the distribution of visualized echoes concentrated at the obstacle edges after the bats became more familiar with their environment. Furthermore, our results indicate that the direction of preceding echoes affects the turn rates of the bat's flight path, revealing their original echolocation behavior.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Visualization of bat “echo space” using acoustic simulation

Teshima¹,

Yamada²,

Tsuchiya³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Anthropogenic structures like turbines can create misleading sensory illusions for echolocating bats. For example, echoes reflected off smooth, hard surfaces are like echoes reflected off the water (Greif et al 2017) and may be perceived as holes ('sonic mirrors') or as water when echoes reflect away from bats (Bennett & Hale 2018, Danilovich et al 2020. The rapid movement and shape of the turbine blades deflect echolocation calls so they do not return to a bat's ears (Long et al 2010).…”

Section: Sensory Perception Of Cues At Wind Farms By Bats Auditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such incoherent signals may influence a bat's behaviour. For example, a foam wall has too quiet of an echo intensity for the size of the object, and bats will make repeated attempts to fly through the wall (Danilovich et al 2020). A wind turbine may appear as a sensory illusion, like a mirage that flickers in and out of existence, and thus may not elicit an avoidance response.…”

Section: Sensory Perception Of Cues At Wind Farms By Bats Auditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multisensory approach to understanding bat responses to wind energy developments

Jonasson,

Adams,

Brokaw

et al. 2024

Mammal Review

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Millions of bats are killed at wind energy facilities worldwide, yet the behavioural mechanisms underlying why bats are vulnerable to wind turbines remain unclear. Anthropogenic stimuli that alter perceptions of the environment, known as sensory pollution, could create ecological traps and cause bat mortality at wind farms. We review the sensory abilities of bats to evaluate potential stimuli associated with wind farms and examine the role of spatial scale on the perceptual mechanisms of sensory pollutants associated with wind energy facilities. Audition, vision, somatosensation and olfaction are sensory modalities that bats use to perceive their environment, including wind farms and turbine structures, but they will not all be useful at the same spatial scales. Bats most likely use vision to perceive wind farms on the landscape, and obstruction lighting may be the first sensory cue to attract bats to wind farms from kilometres away. Research that assesses the risks posed by specific sensory pollutants, when conducted at the appropriate scale, can help identify solutions to reduce bat mortality, such as determining the attractiveness of obstruction lighting to bats at a landscape scale.

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“…Aside from challenges with practical applications of audio transducers, further research is required to better characterize vegetation echoes. Plant echoes have mainly been studied in the context of bat acoustics (Danilovich et al, 2020; Kohles et al, 2020) and bio‐sonar development (Bhardwaj et al, 2021; Zhang & Müller, 2022), but further research is needed to examine ways to convert plant echoes into signal proxies of overall plant community health.…”

Section: Challenges and Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of active acoustic transducers in monitoring and assessment of terrestrial ecosystem health—A review

Rostami

Nansen

2022

Methods Ecol Evol

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1. Urbanization, agricultural production, natural resource extractions and climate change are global drivers of terrestrial ecosystem degradation and decline in ecosystem health. Assessing vegetation structures provides valuable direct and indirect information on biodiversity and ecosystem health, since plant communities govern terrestrial ecosystem functions and overall biodiversity. 2. A growing body of literature supports the hypothesis that acoustic profiling and characterization of soundscapes may reveal natural patterns and ecosystem responses to environmental disturbances. Although assessments of ecosystem soundscapes are a promising tool for ecological monitoring, the influence of vegetation structure on acoustic indices remains largely unaddressed. An effective non-invasive approach to monitoring ecosystem health includes use of active acoustic transducers, which convert mechanical/acoustic energy into electrical energy and visa-versa.3. This article reviews and discusses possible applications (and also constraints) of active acoustic transducers in monitoring and assessments of terrestrial ecosystem health. Specifically, this article includes a brief introduction to the basic principles of sound and types of active acoustic transducers. Moreover, we provide reviews of common uses of active acoustic transducers in assessing plant structures and plant functional traits.4. We emphasize that active acoustic transducers can be used to analyse plant characteristics in a remote, scalable, non-invasive and cost-effective manner to characterize overall terrestrial ecosystem health. Suggestions and recommendations for future research and management directions that may facilitate applications of acoustic transducers to natural terrestrial landscapes are provided.

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Echolocating bats detect but misperceive a multidimensional incongruent acoustic stimulus

Cited by 9 publications

References 57 publications

Visualization of bat “echo space” using acoustic simulation

Visualization of bat “echo space” using acoustic simulation

A multisensory approach to understanding bat responses to wind energy developments

Application of active acoustic transducers in monitoring and assessment of terrestrial ecosystem health—A review

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