Animal Physiology, Institute for Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2020 Apr 1;10(1):5764. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-62743-z.
Social calls have the function to coordinate the behavior of animals. In the presence of conspecifics foraging Common pipistrelle bats (P. pipistrellus) emitted, in addition to typical echolocation signals, two types of social calls: complex social calls and an as-of-yet undescribed, short, frequency-modulated call type with high terminal frequency, which we term "high frequency social call". By recording the flight and acoustic behavior of free flying pairs of foraging P. pipistrellus with an array of four microphones we were able to determine their three-dimensional flight paths and attribute emitted calls to particular behavioral situations. Complex social calls were emitted at further inter-individual distances and at large bearing angles to conspecifics, whereas high frequency social calls were produced at significantly shorter distances and at smaller bearing angles. These calls were associated with chasings and the eviction of the intruder. We assume that the emission of both types of social calls by foraging bats reflects a two-stage-process of the occupation and defense of a food patch. Common pipistrelle bats use complex social calls to claim a food patch and switch to agonistic behaviors, including chasings and high frequency social call emissions, when they defend their foraging territory against an intruder.
社交鸣叫具有协调动物行为的功能。在有同种个体觅食的情况下，普通吸血蝙蝠（Pipistrellus pipistrellus）除了发出典型的回声定位信号外，还会发出两种社交鸣叫：复杂社交鸣叫和一种尚未描述的、短的、调频的高频鸣叫类型，我们称之为“高频社交鸣叫”。通过使用四个麦克风的阵列记录自由飞行的觅食成对的普通吸血蝙蝠的飞行和声学行为，我们能够确定它们的三维飞行路径，并将发出的鸣叫归因于特定的行为情况。复杂社交鸣叫是在更远的个体间距离和更大的与同种个体的方位角处发出的，而高频社交鸣叫则是在显著更近的距离和更小的方位角处产生的。这些鸣叫与追逐和驱逐入侵者有关。我们假设，觅食蝙蝠发出这两种类型的社交鸣叫反映了占领和防御食物斑块的两个阶段过程。普通吸血蝙蝠使用复杂社交鸣叫来声称一个食物斑块，并在其觅食领地受到入侵者侵犯时，切换到竞争行为，包括追逐和高频社交鸣叫的发出。
