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First published online October 27, 2003
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Mysterious Mystacina: how the New Zealand short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata) locates insect prey

Gareth Jones1,*, Peter I. Webb2, Jane A. Sedgeley2 and Colin F. J. O'Donnell3

1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK
2 Department of Zoology, University of Otago, PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand
3 Science & Research Unit, Department of Conservation, Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand



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  		Fig. 1. Search-phase calls of free-flying Mystacina tuberculata. (A) The waveform and (B) the spectrogram of two consecutive calls. (C) A power spectrum of the second call. Spectral analyses were performed with a 512 point FFT and a Hanning window.

 


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  		Fig. 2. A typical attack sequence of Mystacina tuberculata capturing a suspended insect in a flight room. (A) The waveform, (B) the spectrogram, (C) a power spectrum of the second call in the sequence (search phase) and (D) a power spectrum of the penultimate call (terminal phase). Spectral analyses were performed with a 512 point FFT and a Hanning window. Echoes have been removed from the sequence for clarity. Contact with the prey is shown by the low-frequency sound marked by the arrow in A.

 


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  		Fig. 3. A typical sequence of echolocation calls produced by Mystacina tuberculata locating a live mealworm buried in leaf litter. Waveforms are shown above spectrograms (512 point window) FFT, Hanning for three consecutive recording sequences. The bat emits search-phase calls as it orients in the room. It lands with a loud crash and then emits echolocation calls as it searches for the prey while on the ground. The low repetition rate of calls when on the ground and the absence of an increase in repetition rate immediately prior to finding the mealworm suggest that echolocation is not used for prey detection and localization, only for general orientation when on the ground. Notice the sudden increase in repetition rate once the bat becomes airborne again.

 

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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2003