The energetics of social signaling during roost location in Spix's disc-winged bats

Chaverri, Gloriana; Sandoval-Herrera, Natalia Ivone; Iturralde-Pólit, Paula; Romero, Adarli; Cháves-Ramírez, Silvia; Sagot, Maria

doi:10.1242/jeb.238279

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The aggressive vocalizations that we were able to record during the experiments were visually similar to distress calls known for T. tricolor (Chaverri et al, 2021). Distress calls are emitted by bats during stressful situations when they are trapped by predators or captured by a person (Hechavarría et al, 2016, 2020).…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 62%

Aggressive vocalizations during intergroup interactions in roost defense in the Spix's disk‐winged bat

et al. 2023

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Animals engage in agonistic interactions to gain exclusive access to territories and resources. Understanding these interactions in bats, however, has proven difficult given their high mobility and nocturnal habits. For bats, roosts are a critical resource; thus, the study of agonistic behaviors associated with the use of these resources could provide valuable information to understand how and whether individuals monopolize them. Here, we used Thyroptera tricolor to study agonistic behaviors associated with access to a roosting resource. We experimentally studied the behavioral responses of focal groups when interacting with different intruders during the occupation of an ephemeral roosting resource. We found that T. tricolor responds more aggressively to intruders than to members of its own group, increasing the number of aggressive vocalizations. We also found differences in the rate of agonistic behaviors based on the identity of the intruders. Specifically, we observed that bats produced a large number of aggressive vocalizations when interacting with nearby intruders, supporting the “nasty neighbor” hypothesis. This study provided the first empirical evidence that aggressive vocalizations may serve as a mechanism to defend and maintain exclusive roosting sites in social groups of T. tricolor.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 62%

Aggressive vocalizations during intergroup interactions in roost defense in the Spix's disk‐winged bat

et al. 2023

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“…Our recordings of feeding bats show that many individuals emitted distinct vocalizations while consuming an abundant prey item. This type of call has not been previously described in disc-winged bats (Chaverri et al, 2018, 2021; Chaverri & Gillam, 2016; Montero & Gillam, 2015), and is markedly different from calls emitted by this species in situations of distress (Chaves-Ramírez et al, 2023). We also observed that vocalizations prompted two responses in receivers which are typically associated with food-calling (Clay et al, 2012), namely increasing feeding-related behaviors and social recruitment.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 63%

Food-associated calls in disc-winged bats

Chaverri,

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2024

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Animals that engage in social foraging can produce food-associated calls that elicit two main responses in receivers: the recruitment of other individuals to a foraging site, and an increase in feeding-related behaviors in conspecifics. Spix's disc-winged bat, Thyroptera tricolor, is a highly gregarious species that lives in stable social groups and relies on group call-and-response vocalizations to find ephemeral roosting sites. Because this bat also is known to feed on resources that are abundant but ephemeral - for example insect swarms - we hypothesized that it likewise emits vocalizations that serve to recruit conspecifics to a foraging site and elicit food consumption. We found that indeed, feeding bats emitted distinct vocalizations exclusively while consuming an abundant prey item, a call type that has not been previously described in the acoustic repertoire of any bat to date. We also observed that these "food calls" prompted responses typically associated with food-calling: they increased both feeding-related behaviors and social recruitment. Specifically, we observed that the onset of the consumption of novel prey items was strongly associated with the emission of food calls but not with other types of sounds. In addition, individuals approached a speaker broadcasting food calls, especially when food calls had not been broadcast before, while other types of sounds did not consistently prompt inspection. Taken together, these results suggest that T. tricolor coordinates foraging behavior through the emission of food-associated communication calls.

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“…Non-vocal bats, however, independently of sex, took a similar amount of time locating the roost in both trials. From previous experiments, it is known that males have a higher chance of being vocal, compared to females (Sagot et al, 2018;Chaverri et al, 2021). However, vocal male and female bats produce similar number of response calls (Sagot et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, groups are composed by a mix of vocal and non-vocal individuals and those vocal roles appear to be consistent over time (Chaverri and Gillam, 2015;Chaverri et al, 2020). Moreover, although this call system facilitates roost location by group members (Sagot et al, 2018), it can be energetically demanding, especially for individuals producing calls at higher rates (Chaverri et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocal behavior and the use of social information during roost finding

et al. 2022

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When selecting feeding, hiding, or resting areas, animals face multiple decisions with different fitness consequences. To maximize efficiency, individuals can either collect personal information, or use information gathered and transmitted by other individuals (social information). Within group living species, organisms often specialize in either generating social information or using information gathered by other groups members. That is the case of the Spix’s disk-winged bat, Thyroptera tricolor. This species uses contact calls during roost finding. Social groups are composed by a mix of vocal and non-vocal individuals and those vocal roles appear to be consistent over time. Moreover, their vocal behavior can predict roost finding in natural settings, suggesting that vocal individuals are capable of generating social information that can be used by other group members. To date, however, we do not know if when presented with social information (contact calls) during roost finding, vocal individuals will make more or less use of these cues, compared to non-vocal individuals. To answer this question, we broadcast contact calls from a roost inside a flight cage to test whether vocal individuals could find a potential roost faster than non-vocal individuals when they encounter sounds that signal the presence of a roost site. Our results suggest that non-vocal individuals select roost sites based primarily on social information, whereas vocal individuals do not rely heavily on social information when deciding where to roost. This study provides the first link between vocal behavior and the use of social information during the search for roosting resources in bats. Incorporating ideas of social roles, and how individuals decide when and where to move based on the use of social information, may shed some light on these and other outstanding questions about the social lives of bats.

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The energetics of social signaling during roost location in Spix's disc-winged bats

Cited by 12 publications

References 47 publications

Aggressive vocalizations during intergroup interactions in roost defense in the Spix's disk‐winged bat

Aggressive vocalizations during intergroup interactions in roost defense in the Spix's disk‐winged bat

Food-associated calls in disc-winged bats

Vocal behavior and the use of social information during roost finding

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