Foraging bats avoid noise

Abstract

There was an error published in J. Exp. Biol. 211,[3174][3175][3176][3177][3178][3179][3180] In Fig. 2, the values on the x-axis (Frequency) were incorrectly labelled as scaling from 10 to 60 kHz.The correct axis scale is 0 to 50 kHz.We apologise to all authors and readers for this error.

The importance of invertebrates when considering the impacts of anthropogenic noise

“…Figure 1. Approximate hearing ranges of insect orders and noise spectrum of road traffic recorded at 15 m. Noise spectra taken from Schaub et al [28]. Asterisk indicates that species sensitive to particle velocity are also included.…”

“…While this approach has been deemed acceptable for birds, which hear in a similar frequency range to us and on which the majority of terrestrial work has so far been conducted, noise quantification ideally needs to cover broad bandwidths extending beyond audible frequencies using unweighted, flat-response recording equipment. A study by Schaub et al [28] on bat foraging sets a robust standard for quantification of anthropogenic noise in a way relevant to the study species: they measured road traffic noise between 0 and 50 kHz with a flat-response microphone, showing the majority of energy concentrated below 5 kHz. Moreover, Schaub et al quantified the number of vehicles, vehicle type and distance from the noise source; as the same type of noise source can produce highly variable sounds and the frequency content and amplitude are dependent on the distance from the source, including these factors adds valuable information.…”

“…Such natural experimental situations may be rare, however, and manipulations are usually required. Careful controls are often the easiest in laboratory experiments, where more detailed data collection than in the wild is also potentially feasible [28,49,61], but care must be taken when extrapolating results to meaningful implications for free-ranging animals in natural conditions; the ecological validity of laboratory-based work can be questioned. Field experiments are becoming more common (e.g.…”

Vegetated Fauna Overpass Disguises Road Presence and Facilitates Permeability for Forest Microbats in Brisbane, Australia

“…Direct effects such as vehicle strikes (Gaisler et al, 2009;Lesinski et al, 2011), street lighting and traffic noise (Longcore and Rich, 2004;Stone et al, 2009;Bennett and Zurcher, 2013) are also known to impact urban bat communities by altering foraging, commuting, roosting and activity times . For example, increased artificial light is known to dramatically reduce foraging activity and delay commuting behavior in lesser horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus hipposideros) (Stone et al, 2009), while road noise greatly impairs the passive listening abilities of greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) (Schaub et al, 2008). Vegetated fauna overpasses have the potential to mitigate these impacts for bats by reintroducing structural habitat complexity, providing safe passage across roads, as has been shown for other taxa (Bond and Jones, 2008;Mata et al, 2008;Jones and Pickvance, 2013;McGregor et al, 2015).…”

Vibratory noise in anthropogenic habitats and its effect on prey detection in a web-building spider

“…Anthropogenic noise sources such as automobile traffic and construction create low-frequency substrate-borne vibrations that may overlap with frequencies commonly used by arthropods, and may propagate with only moderate attenuation (for example, the 16e250 Hz vibrations from underground rail systems; Kurzweil, 1979). Impacts of such noises may parallel those of acoustic noises such as traffic, wind turbines, shipping and seismic exploration (Hildebrand, 2009), which influence vocalization (Di Iorio & Clark, 2010;Lampe, Reinhold, & Schmoll, 2013;Lampe, Schmoll, Franzke, & Reinhold, 2012;Slabbekoorn & Peet, 2003), antipredator (Rabin, Coss, & Owings, 2006), foraging (Croll, Clark, Calambokidis, Ellison, & Tershy, 2001;Leonard & Horn, 2012;Schaub, Ostwald, & Siemers, 2008) and reproductive behaviours (Bee & Swanson, 2007;Halfwerk, Holleman, Lessells, & Slabbekoorn, 2011). …”