Plasticity of echolocation call of Himalayan leaf-nosed bat in different situations and habitats complexities
LI Yanli,SHAO Yonggang,LIU Zhixiao,LIU Qi, CHEN Yi, ZHANG Youxiang, ZHANG Libiao
2014, 34(3):
238.
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Acoustic plasticity is important bats to adapt to different situations and habitats,as well as for foraging and social communication. To examine this ability in Himalayan leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideros armiger),echolocation calls from a total of 11 individuals were recorded both inside and outside of the laboratory. Specifically they were placed in artificial habitats with four levels of complexity,and also in four behavioral situations (i. e. held in hand,kept in bag,resting and free flying in door). The four artificial habitats were indoors with no-trees,one-trees or five-trees,and free-flying outdoors. Outdoors we recorded the calls while they were released in their natural habitat. The results showed that the Himalayan leaf-nosed bat emits CF-FM echolocation calls,in which normally continuous 2 - 4 pulses form a pulse group. When comparing the echolocation calls among four different behavioral situations,the dominant frequency was highest while resting lower when kept in bag,lower still when held in hand,and tlowest when free-flying indoors,while the frequency range of TFM was shortest when held in hand,followed by kept in bag and free flying indoors,and longest while resting. The pulse duration and inter-pulse intervals both increased during resting,free flying in door,kept in bag,and held in hand, respectively. When comparing the echolocation calls among free-flying bats in four habitats of different complexities,the dominant frequency being lowest outdoors, followed by indoors with no-trees,one-tree and five-trees,respectively,while the pulse duration and inter-pulse interval both decreased in the same order. The frequency range of TFM when the bats were released outoors was shorter than those when bats were flying indoors. These results indicate that the echolocation calls of Himalayan leaf-nosed bat have significant plasticity under different situations and habitat complexities,and are part of their environmental adaptation.