What a Plant Sounds Like: The Statistics of Vegetation Echoes as Received by Echolocating Bats

Yovel, Yossi; Stilz, Peter; Franz, Matthias; Boonman, Arjan; Schnitzler, Hans‐Ulrich

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000429

Cited by 44 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Therefore, biotope recognition is fundamental for bats. Bats can use statistical properties of echoes from vegetation for the classification of typical biotope elements such as trees and bushes (Yovel et al, 2009, 2011). …”

Section: Basic Echolocation Tasks Of Foraging Batsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat guilds, a concept to classify the highly diverse foraging and echolocation behaviors of microchiropteran bats

Denzinger¹,

Schnitzler²

2013

Front. Physiol.

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377

297

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Throughout evolution the foraging and echolocation behaviors as well as the motor systems of bats have been adapted to the tasks they have to perform while searching and acquiring food. When bats exploit the same class of environmental resources in a similar way, they perform comparable tasks and thus share similar adaptations independent of their phylogeny. Species with similar adaptations are assigned to guilds or functional groups. Habitat type and foraging mode mainly determine the foraging tasks and thus the adaptations of bats. Therefore, we use habitat type and foraging mode to define seven guilds. The habitat types open, edge and narrow space are defined according to the bats' echolocation behavior in relation to the distance between bat and background or food item and background. Bats foraging in the aerial, trawling, flutter detecting, or active gleaning mode use only echolocation to acquire their food. When foraging in the passive gleaning mode bats do not use echolocation but rely on sensory cues from the food item to find it. Bat communities often comprise large numbers of species with a high diversity in foraging areas, foraging modes, and diets. The assignment of species living under similar constraints into guilds identifies patterns of community structure and helps to understand the factors that underlie the organization of highly diverse bat communities. Bat species from different guilds do not compete for food as they differ in their foraging behavior and in the environmental resources they use. However, sympatric living species belonging to the same guild often exploit the same class of resources. To avoid competition they should differ in their niche dimensions. The fine grain structure of bat communities below the rather coarse classification into guilds is determined by mechanisms that result in niche partitioning.

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Section: Basic Echolocation Tasks Of Foraging Batsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bat guilds, a concept to classify the highly diverse foraging and echolocation behaviors of microchiropteran bats

Denzinger¹,

Schnitzler²

2013

Front. Physiol.

Self Cite

377

297

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Dolphins and porpoises could rely on the statistics of the school itself (e.g., typical distances within the school), similar to the approach suggested by Yovel et al [14] to classify plants which are also arrays of reflectors with typical statistics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Dolphins Recognize Fish According to Their Echoes? A Statistical Analysis of Fish Echoes

Yovel

2010

PLoS ONE

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Echo-based object classification is a fundamental task of animals that use a biosonar system. Dolphins and porpoises should be able to rely on echoes to discriminate a predator from a prey or to select a desired prey from an undesired object. Many studies have shown that dolphins and porpoises can discriminate between objects according to their echoes. All of these studies however, used unnatural objects that can be easily characterized in human terminologies (e.g., metallic spheres, disks, cylinders). In this work, we collected real fish echoes from many angles of acquisition using a sonar system that mimics the emission properties of dolphins and porpoises. We then tested two alternative statistical approaches in classifying these echoes. Our results suggest that fish species can be classified according to echoes returning from porpoise- and dolphin-like signals. These results suggest how dolphins and porpoises can classify fish based on their echoes and provide some insight as to which features might enable the classification.

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“…The second condition included two plastic plants in the same locations as the acrylic plates (Supporting Information Figure c). These plants most likely provided a soft and low amplitude echo (Yovel, Stilz, Franz, Boonman, & Schnitzler, ), opposed to a possibly higher amplitude echo from the acrylic plates. Shrews crawled through the plants most of the time, instead of walking around them.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic emissions of Sorex unguiculatus (Mammalia: Soricidae): Assessing the echo‐based orientation hypothesis

Sánchez

Ohdachi

Kawahara

et al. 2019

Ecology and Evolution

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Shrew species have been proposed to utilize an echo‐based orientation system to obtain additional acoustic information while surveying their environments. This system has been supported by changes in vocal emission rates when shrews encounter different habitats of varying complexity, although detailed acoustic features in this system have not been reported. In this study, behavioral experiments were conducted using the long‐clawed shrew ( Sorex unguiculatus ) to assess this orientation system. Three experimental conditions were set, two of which contained obstacles. Short‐click, noisy, and different types of tonal calls in the audible‐to‐ultrasonic frequency range were recorded under all experimental conditions. The results indicated that shrews emit calls more frequently when they are facing obstacles or exploring the experimental environment. Shrews emitted clicks and several different types of tonal calls while exploring, and modified the use of different types of calls for varying behavior. Furthermore, shrews modified the dominant frequency and duration of squeak calls for different types of obstacles, that is, plants and acrylic barriers. The vocalizations emitted at short inter‐pulse intervals could not be observed when shrews approached these obstacles. These results are consistent with the echo‐based orientation hypothesis according to which shrews use a simple echo‐orientation system to obtain information from their surrounding environments, although further studies are needed to confirm this hypothesis.

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What a Plant Sounds Like: The Statistics of Vegetation Echoes as Received by Echolocating Bats

Cited by 44 publications

References 21 publications

Bat guilds, a concept to classify the highly diverse foraging and echolocation behaviors of microchiropteran bats

Bat guilds, a concept to classify the highly diverse foraging and echolocation behaviors of microchiropteran bats

How Can Dolphins Recognize Fish According to Their Echoes? A Statistical Analysis of Fish Echoes

Acoustic emissions of Sorex unguiculatus (Mammalia: Soricidae): Assessing the echo‐based orientation hypothesis

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