Social vocalizations of big brown bats vary with behavioral context.

Title

Social vocalizations of big brown bats vary with behavioral context.

Creator

Gadziola Marie A; Grimsley Jasmine M S; Faure Paul A; Wenstrup Jeffrey J

Publisher

PloS one

Date

2012
1905-7

Description

Bats are among the most gregarious and vocal mammals, with some species demonstrating a diverse repertoire of syllables under a variety of behavioral contexts. Despite extensive characterization of big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) biosonar signals, there have been no detailed studies of adult social vocalizations. We recorded and analyzed social vocalizations and associated behaviors of captive big brown bats under four behavioral contexts: low aggression, medium aggression, high aggression, and appeasement. Even limited to these contexts, big brown bats possess a rich repertoire of social vocalizations, with 18 distinct syllable types automatically classified using a spectrogram cross-correlation procedure. For each behavioral context, we describe vocalizations in terms of syllable acoustics, temporal emission patterns, and typical syllable sequences. Emotion-related acoustic cues are evident within the call structure by context-specific syllable types or variations in the temporal emission pattern. We designed a paradigm that could evoke aggressive vocalizations while monitoring heart rate as an objective measure of internal physiological state. Changes in the magnitude and duration of elevated heart rate scaled to the level of evoked aggression, confirming the behavioral state classifications assessed by vocalizations and behavioral displays. These results reveal a complex acoustic communication system among big brown bats in which acoustic cues and call structure signal the emotional state of a caller.

Subject

Animals; *Animal Communication; Chiroptera/*physiology; Electrocardiography; Acoustics; *Behavior; Animal

Rights

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

Pages

e44550–e44550

Issue

9

Volume

7

Citation

Gadziola Marie A; Grimsley Jasmine M S; Faure Paul A; Wenstrup Jeffrey J, “Social vocalizations of big brown bats vary with behavioral context.,” NEOMED Bibliography Database, accessed March 18, 2024, https://neomed.omeka.net/items/show/4943.