Abstract
The literature suggests that in familiar laboratory settings, Indian false vampire bats (Megaderma lyra, family Megadermatidae) locate terrestrial prey with and without emitting echolocation calls in the dark and cease echolocating when simulated moonlit conditions presumably allow the use of vision. More recent laboratory-based research suggests that M. lyra uses echolocation throughout attacks but at emission rates much lower than those of other gleaning bats. We present data from wild-caught bats hunting for and capturing prey in unfamiliar conditions mimicking natural situations. By varying light level and substrate complexity we demonstrated that hunting M. lyra always emit echolocation calls and that emission patterns are the same regardless of light/substrate condition and similar to those of other wild-caught gleaning bats. Therefore, echoic information appears necessary for this species when hunting in unfamiliar situations, while, in the context of past research, echolocation may be supplanted by vision, spatial memory or both in familiar spaces.
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Acknowledgements
P. Abrams, J. Barber, H. ter Hofstede, A. McGuigan, B. Neff and S. Shettleworth and three anonymous reviewers provided comments and criticisms that improved upon earlier versions of the manuscript. This study was financed through a Journal of Experimental Biology traveling fellowship and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) post-graduate fellowship to J. Ratcliffe, NSERC grants to B. Fenton and J. Fullard and grants from the Department of Science and Technology of India to G. Marimuthu. Capture, holding, and experimental procedures used in this study were approved by the Institutional Ethical and Bio-safety Committee of MKU and the Forestry Department, Government of India and complied with the current laws of India.
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Ratcliffe, J.M., Raghuram, H., Marimuthu, G. et al. Hunting in unfamiliar space: echolocation in the Indian false vampire bat, Megaderma lyra, when gleaning prey. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 58, 157–164 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0912-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-005-0912-z