Function of aggressive vocalizations in Asian particoloured bats

【作者】 罗波； 王茄灵； 刘颖； 冯江；

【机构】 西华师范大学生命科学学院西南野生动植物资源保护教育部重点实验室； 东北师范大学环境学院吉林省动物资源保护与利用重点实验室； 吉林农业大学动物科学技术学院；

【摘要】 Why a variety of social animals vocalize during agonistic foraging interactions remains obscure.One possibility is that these signals advertise the signaller’s competitive ability,playing a role in the defence of food resources,yet there is limited evidence in support of this idea.Here,we used adult female Asian particoloured bats,Vespertilio sinensis,to test whether individual variation in competitive ability when foraging can be explained by aggressive calls.Using synchronized infrared video and audio recording,we monitored bat aggressive vocalizations,dominance rank and weight gain in triads under controlled food conditions.Additionally,subsequent playbacks,consisting of experimental stimuli,echolocation pulses and silence,were presented to feeding bats in a laboratory.Analyses showed that females uttered low frequency calls composed of one to five syllable types during feeding competition.The rates of aggressive vocalizations increased with reduced food availability.Interestingly,dominance score and weight gain correlated weakly with body size,but positively with call rate and associated parameters.Playback of aggressive calls inhibited the visits of bats to the focal food dish compared to playback of silence and echolocation pulses.The amount of food consumed was greatly reduced in the presence of experimental stimuli versus controls.Collectively,these results highlight that acoustic signals serve as an honest indicator of bat competitive ability and serve to defend food resources.更多还原

【Abstract】 Why a variety of social animals vocalize during agonistic foraging interactions remains obscure.One possibility is that these signals advertise the signaller’s competitive ability,playing a role in the defence of food resources,yet there is limited evidence in support of this idea.Here,we used adult female Asian particoloured bats,Vespertilio sinensis,to test whether individual variation in competitive ability when foraging can be explained by aggressive calls.Using synchronized infrared video and audio recording,we monitored bat aggressive vocalizations,dominance rank and weight gain in triads under controlled food conditions.Additionally,subsequent playbacks,consisting of experimental stimuli,echolocation pulses and silence,were presented to feeding bats in a laboratory.Analyses showed that females uttered low frequency calls composed of one to five syllable types during feeding competition.The rates of aggressive vocalizations increased with reduced food availability.Interestingly,dominance score and weight gain correlated weakly with body size,but positively with call rate and associated parameters.Playback of aggressive calls inhibited the visits of bats to the focal food dish compared to playback of silence and echolocation pulses.The amount of food consumed was greatly reduced in the presence of experimental stimuli versus controls.Collectively,these results highlight that acoustic signals serve as an honest indicator of bat competitive ability and serve to defend food resources.更多还原