Sensory Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, , Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany.
Biol Lett. 2010 Feb 23;6(1):59-62. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0611. Epub 2009 Sep 9.
Ecological pressure paired with opportunism can lead to surprising innovations in animal behaviour. Here, we report predation of great tits (Parus major) on hibernating pipistrelle bats (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) at a Hungarian cave. Over two winters, we directly observed 18 predation events. The tits specifically and systematically searched for and killed bats for food. A substantial decrease in predation on bats after experimental provisioning of food to the tits further supports the hypothesis that bat-killing serves a foraging purpose in times of food scarcity. We finally conducted a playback experiment to test whether tits would eavesdrop on calls of awakening bats to find them in rock crevices. The tits could clearly hear the calls and were attracted to the loudspeaker. Records for tit predation on bats at this cave now span more than ten years and thus raise the question of whether cultural transmission plays a role for the spread of this foraging innovation.
生态压力加上机会主义，可能导致动物行为出现惊人的创新。在这里，我们报告了在匈牙利洞穴中，大山雀（Parus major）捕食冬眠的毛腿吸血蝙蝠（Pipistrellus pipistrellus）的情况。在两个冬天里，我们直接观察到了 18 起捕食事件。大山雀专门且系统地寻找并杀死蝙蝠作为食物。对大山雀进行食物配给实验后，对蝙蝠的捕食行为显著减少，这进一步支持了这样一种假设，即在食物匮乏时期，捕杀蝙蝠是一种觅食行为。最后，我们进行了播放实验，以测试大山雀是否会偷听蝙蝠的叫声，以便在岩石裂缝中找到它们。大山雀显然能听到这些叫声，并被扬声器吸引。在这个洞穴中，有关大山雀捕食蝙蝠的记录已经超过十年，这就提出了一个问题，即文化传播是否在这种觅食创新的传播中发挥了作用。
