%0 Journal Article %A WU Xiu %A LUO Bo %A WANG Weiwei %A GAO Huimin %A DENG Yingchun %A WANG Jing %A FENG Jiang %T The effect of rain noise on emergence behavior in least horseshoe bats %D 2020 %R 10.16829/j.slxb.150368 %J ACTA THERIOLOGICA SINICA %P 129-134 %V 40 %N 2 %X
The sound of rain is a common natural noise generated by raindrops striking the surface of objects. To date,the potential effect of rain noise on animals has been widely neglected. Echolocating bats rely on acoustic signals for spatial navigation,prey detection,and social communication in a dark environment,making them an ideal taxon to study the aversive impact of rain noise. Here,we used least horseshoe bats,Rhinolophus pusillus,as a model to assess whether rain noise affects emergence behavior. Field playbacks,consisting of the noise of heavy rain,silence,and intraspecific echolocation calls,were presented to bats outside the colony roost. One-way ANOVA and post-hoc tests were applied to determine differential responses of bats to different playback stimuli. Analyses revealed that the percentage of bat passes decreased 2.82-fold on average in the presence of heavy rain noise compared to the silent control. The average number of bat echolocation pulses declined 4.86-fold during playback of heavy rain noise compared to playback of silence. The duration of the colony-wide emergence was delayed 3.75 min when heavy rain noise was presented. There were no marked differences in emergence activity in the presence of intraspecific echolocation calls versus the silent control. These results indicate that the sound of heavy rain could suppress emergence behavior in least
horseshoe bats. Our findings highlight that noise disturbance imposed by rainfall may be an important determinant of rain avoidance in bats,and provides implications for the conservation and management of wild bat species.
%U http://www.mammal.cn/EN/10.16829/j.slxb.150368