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Behavioral evidence for eavesdropping on prey song in two Palearctic sibling bat species

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Abstract

Eavesdropping on prey communication signals has never before been reported for a Palearctic bat species. In this study, we investigated whether lesser and greater mouse-eared bats, Myotis blythii oxygnathus and Myotis myotis, find tettigoniid bushcrickets (Tettigoniidae) by eavesdropping on their mate-attraction song. Tettigoniids are known to be the most important prey item for M. blythii oxygnathus, while carabid beetles and other epigaeic arthropods are the most important prey for its sibling species, M. myotis, in many places in Europe. M. myotis locates walking beetles by listening for their rustling sounds. We compared these two species’ response to four acoustic prey cues: calling song of two tettigoniid species, the rustling sound made by walking carabid beetles, and a control tone. Individuals of both bat species attacked the speaker playing tettigoniid song, which clearly indicates that both species eavesdrop on prey-generated advertisement signals. There were, however, species differences in response. M. blythii oxygnathus exhibited stronger predatory responses to the calling song of two species of tettigoniid than to the beetle rustling sound or the control. M. myotis, in contrast, exhibited stronger predatory responses to the beetle rustling and to one tettigoniid species but not the other tettigoniid or the control. Our study (1) for the first time demonstrates eavesdropping on prey communication signals for Palearctic bats and (2) gives preliminary evidence for sensory niche partitioning between these two sympatric sibling bat species.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to David Bethel, Ivailo Borissov, Tess Driessens, Stefan Greif, Antonia Hubancheva, Markus Schuller, and Sara Troxell for help and company during fieldwork, bat husbandry, and experiments. We thank Maike Schuchmann for assistance in amplitude measurements, Viktoria Grossauer for the evaluation of tettigoniid song parameters, and Leonie Baier for help with figure preparation. We thank the responsible Bulgarian authorities (MOEW-Sofia and RIOSV-Ruse) for granting us permission to conduct this research and the Directorate of the Rusenski Lom Nature Park (director Milko Belberov) as well as the Bulgarian Bat Research and Protection Group for cooperation and support. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on the manuscript. This study was funded by the Max Planck Society (BMS), an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (RAP), and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (PLJ).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sensory Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Eberhard-Gwinner-Strasse 11, 82319, Seewiesen, Germany

    Patricia L. Jones, Rachel A. Page & Björn M. Siemers

  2. Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station C0930, Austin, TX, USA

    Patricia L. Jones

  3. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, MRC 0580-06, Apartado, 0843-03092, Panama City, Republic of Panama

    Rachel A. Page

  4. Department of Zoology, Karl-Franzens Universität, Universitätsplatz 2, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Manfred Hartbauer

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  1. Patricia L. Jones
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  4. Björn M. Siemers
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Correspondence to Björn M. Siemers.

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Communicated by G. Jones

Electronic supplementary material

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Recording of a lesser mouse-eared bat, Myotis blythii oxygnathus, responding to playback of the calling song of the bushcricket species Tettigonia cantans. The speaker is in the center of the screen partially concealed by leaves. (MPG 4306 kb)

A different M. blythii oxygnathus individual responding to playback of the calling song of another bushcricket species, Tettigonia viridissima. (MPG 3658 kb)

Recording of a greater mouse-eared bat, Myotis myotis, responding to playback of the calling song of the bushcricket species Tettigonia cantans. (MPG 618 kb)

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Jones, P.L., Page, R.A., Hartbauer, M. et al. Behavioral evidence for eavesdropping on prey song in two Palearctic sibling bat species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65, 333–340 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-010-1050-9

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