Data from: A 2.6‐g sound and movement tag for studying the acoustic scene and kinematics of echolocating bats

• Main Authors: Stidsholt, Laura, Johnson, Mark, Beedholm, Kristian, Jakobsen, Lasse, Kugler, Kathrin, Brinkløv, Signe, Salles, Angeles, Moss, Cynthia F., Madsen, Peter Teglberg
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2018
• Subjects: auditory scene; bat echolocation; Nyctalus noctula; accelerometers; prey capture; present
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.s1r7qr3

1. To study sensorimotor behaviour in wild animals, it is necessary to synchronously record the sensory inputs available to the animal, and its movements. To do this, we have developed a biologging device that can record the primary sensory information and the associated movements during foraging and navigating in echolocating bats. 2. This 2.6 -gram tag records the sonar calls and echoes from an ultrasonic microphone, while simultaneously sampling fine-scale movement in three dimensions from wideband accelerometers and magnetometers. In this study, we tested the tag on an European noctula (Nyctalus noctula) during target approaches and on four big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) during prey interception in a flight room. 3. We show that the tag records both the outgoing calls and echoes returning from objects at biologically relevant distances. Inertial sensor data enables the detection of behavioural events such as flying, turning, and resting. In addition, individual wing-beats can be tracked and synchronized to the bat's sound emissions to study the coordination of different motor events. 4. By recording the primary acoustic flow of bats concomitant with associated behaviours on a very fine time-scale, this type of biologging method will foster a deeper understanding of how sensory inputs guide feeding behaviours in the wild. Eptesicus_fuscus_prey_capturing_flight_room_experiment_2 Data collected on Eptesicus fuscus in a large flight room at the Johns Hopkins University. The bat were trained to fly across a flight room and catch tethered mealworms. The echolocation signals and the echoes were recorded from an on-board acoustic tag. The tag recorded with a sampling rate of 187.5 kHz. tag_data_eptesicus_fuscus_mealworm_catching_experiment_2.wav Nyctalus_noctual_target_appraoch_experiment_tag-recorded Data collected on Nyctalus noctula in a large flight room at the University of Southern Denmark. The bat was trained to fly across a flight room and land on a target platform. The echolocation signals were ...