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First published online October 5, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 3607-3615 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.009837
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The sensory basis of roost finding in a forest bat, Nyctalus noctula

Ireneusz Ruczynski1,*, Elisabeth K. V. Kalko2,3 and Björn M. Siemers4

1 Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1, 17-230 Bialowieza, Poland
2 Experimental Ecology (Bio III), University of Ulm, Albert-Einstein Allee 11, 89069 Ulm, Germany
3 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Balboa, Panama
4 Sensory Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Straße, 82319 Seewiesen, Germany

* Author for correspondence (e-mail: iruczyns{at}zbs.bialowieza.pl)

Accepted 14 August 2007

Tree cavities are a critical resource for most forest-dwelling bats. Yet, it is not known how bats search for new sites and, in particular, find entrances to cavities. Here, we evaluated the importance of different sensory channels for the detection of tree roosts by the noctule bat Nyctalus noctula. Specifically, we tested the role of three non-social cues (echo information, visual information and temperature-related cues) and two social sensory cues (conspecific echolocation calls and the presence of bat olfactory cues). We set up an experiment in a flight room that mimicked natural conditions. In the flight room, we trained wild-caught bats kept in captivity for a short while to find the entrance to an artificial tree cavity. We measured the bats' hole-finding performance based on echolocation cues alone and then presented the bat with one of four additional sensory cues. Our data show that conspecific echolocation calls clearly improved the bats' performance in finding tree holes, both from flying (long-range detection) and when they were crawling on the trunk (short range detection). The other cues we presented had no, or only weak, effects on performance, implying that detection of new cavities from a distance is difficult for noctules if no additional social cues, in particular calls from conspecifics, are present. We conclude that sensory constraints strongly limit the effectiveness of finding new cavities and may in turn promote sociality and acoustic information transfer among bats. As acoustic cues clearly increased the bats' detection performance, we suggest that eavesdropping is an important mechanism for reducing the costs of finding suitable roosts.

Key words: sensory ecology, roost selection, echolocation, social cues, eavesdropping, information transfer, bat


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