Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp.
Abstract Animals modify their behaviours and interactions in response to changing environments. In bats, environmental adaptations are reflected in echolocation signalling that is used for navigation, foraging and communication. However, the extent and drivers of echolocation plasticity are not full...
Published in: | Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
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Language: | English |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2021
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 2023-05-15T17:59:57+02:00 Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. Montauban, Cecilia Mas, Maria Tuneu-Corral, Carme Wangensteen, Owen S. Budinski, Ivana Martí-Carreras, Joan Flaquer, Carles Puig-Montserrat, Xavier López-Baucells, Adrià 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology volume 75, issue 4 ISSN 0340-5443 1432-0762 Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics journal-article 2021 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 2022-01-04T07:05:23Z Abstract Animals modify their behaviours and interactions in response to changing environments. In bats, environmental adaptations are reflected in echolocation signalling that is used for navigation, foraging and communication. However, the extent and drivers of echolocation plasticity are not fully understood, hindering our identification of bat species with ultrasonic detectors, particularly for cryptic species with similar echolocation calls. We used a combination of DNA barcoding, intensive trapping, roost and emergence surveys and acoustic recording to study a widespread European cryptic species complex ( Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus ) to investigate whether sibling bat species could exhibit extreme echolocation plasticity in response to certain environmental conditions or behaviours. We found that P. pygmaeus occupied the acoustic niche of their absent congeneric species, producing calls with P. pipistrellus ’ characteristic structure and peak frequencies and resulting in false positive acoustic records of that species. Echolocation frequency was significantly affected by the density of bats and by maternity rearing stage, with lower frequency calls emitted when there was a high density of flying bats, and by mothers while juveniles were non-volant. During roost emergence, 29% of calls had peak frequencies typical of P. pipistrellus , with calls as low as 44 kHz, lower than ever documented. We show that automatic and manual call classifiers fail to account for echolocation plasticity, misidentifying P. pygmaeus as P. pipistrellus . Our study raises a vital limitation of using only acoustic sampling in areas with high densities of a single species of a cryptic species pair, with important implications for bat monitoring. Significance statement Ultrasonic acoustic detectors are widely used in bat research to establish species inventories and monitor species activity through identification of echolocation calls, enabling new methods to study and understand this elusive understudied group of nocturnal mammals. However, echolocation call signalling in bats is intrinsically different to that of other taxa, serving a main function of navigation and foraging. This study demonstrates an extreme level of plasticity, showing large variation in call frequency and structure in different situations. We showcase the difficulty and limitation in using acoustic sampling alone for bat monitoring and the complications of setting parameters for species identification for manual and automatic call classifiers. Our observations of call frequency variation correlated with density and absence of congenerics provide novel insights of behavioural echolocation plasticity in bats. Article in Journal/Newspaper Pipistrellus pipistrellus Springer Nature (via Crossref) Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 75 4 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
spellingShingle |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics Montauban, Cecilia Mas, Maria Tuneu-Corral, Carme Wangensteen, Owen S. Budinski, Ivana Martí-Carreras, Joan Flaquer, Carles Puig-Montserrat, Xavier López-Baucells, Adrià Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. |
topic_facet |
Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics |
description |
Abstract Animals modify their behaviours and interactions in response to changing environments. In bats, environmental adaptations are reflected in echolocation signalling that is used for navigation, foraging and communication. However, the extent and drivers of echolocation plasticity are not fully understood, hindering our identification of bat species with ultrasonic detectors, particularly for cryptic species with similar echolocation calls. We used a combination of DNA barcoding, intensive trapping, roost and emergence surveys and acoustic recording to study a widespread European cryptic species complex ( Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus ) to investigate whether sibling bat species could exhibit extreme echolocation plasticity in response to certain environmental conditions or behaviours. We found that P. pygmaeus occupied the acoustic niche of their absent congeneric species, producing calls with P. pipistrellus ’ characteristic structure and peak frequencies and resulting in false positive acoustic records of that species. Echolocation frequency was significantly affected by the density of bats and by maternity rearing stage, with lower frequency calls emitted when there was a high density of flying bats, and by mothers while juveniles were non-volant. During roost emergence, 29% of calls had peak frequencies typical of P. pipistrellus , with calls as low as 44 kHz, lower than ever documented. We show that automatic and manual call classifiers fail to account for echolocation plasticity, misidentifying P. pygmaeus as P. pipistrellus . Our study raises a vital limitation of using only acoustic sampling in areas with high densities of a single species of a cryptic species pair, with important implications for bat monitoring. Significance statement Ultrasonic acoustic detectors are widely used in bat research to establish species inventories and monitor species activity through identification of echolocation calls, enabling new methods to study and understand this elusive understudied group of nocturnal mammals. However, echolocation call signalling in bats is intrinsically different to that of other taxa, serving a main function of navigation and foraging. This study demonstrates an extreme level of plasticity, showing large variation in call frequency and structure in different situations. We showcase the difficulty and limitation in using acoustic sampling alone for bat monitoring and the complications of setting parameters for species identification for manual and automatic call classifiers. Our observations of call frequency variation correlated with density and absence of congenerics provide novel insights of behavioural echolocation plasticity in bats. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Montauban, Cecilia Mas, Maria Tuneu-Corral, Carme Wangensteen, Owen S. Budinski, Ivana Martí-Carreras, Joan Flaquer, Carles Puig-Montserrat, Xavier López-Baucells, Adrià |
author_facet |
Montauban, Cecilia Mas, Maria Tuneu-Corral, Carme Wangensteen, Owen S. Budinski, Ivana Martí-Carreras, Joan Flaquer, Carles Puig-Montserrat, Xavier López-Baucells, Adrià |
author_sort |
Montauban, Cecilia |
title |
Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. |
title_short |
Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. |
title_full |
Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. |
title_fullStr |
Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp. |
title_sort |
bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of pipistrellus sp. |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7.pdf https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7/fulltext.html |
genre |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
genre_facet |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
op_source |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology volume 75, issue 4 ISSN 0340-5443 1432-0762 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-021-03002-7 |
container_title |
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |
container_volume |
75 |
container_issue |
4 |
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1766168851422117888 |