New research on bats hunting in noise

New research on bats hunting in noise
Date:October 28, 2016
Source: Salisbury University

Dr. Ryan Taylor of Salisbury University's Biological Sciences Department recently published in Science magazine with a team from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama on how "Bats Perceptually Weight Prey Cues Across Sensory Systems When Hunting in Noise."

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"We live in an increasingly urbanized world and with that comes more noise," Taylor said. "There have been a number of studies on how anthropogenic (human induced or created) noise influences bird communications, but we don't know much about the impacts on other species."

Noise pollution, according to the study, has been linked to lower survival and reproduction because it masks environmental cues and makes it hard for animals to hear moving prey or approaching predators.

"For our bats," Taylor added, "the positive take away is that they don't seem to be bothered by the noise, as they are able to switch their modes of detecting prey." The fringe-lipped bats change from passively listening to the túngara frog mating calls to using high-frequency echolocations to detect the movement of calling frogs, he explained.

More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161028155637.htm