Abstract
The use of songs for mate-attraction is common. Intensive songs may indicate high energetic investment, reflecting an individual’s resource-holding potential and attractiveness as a prospective mate. Consequently, there can be a direct relationship between song metrics and lifetime reproductive success. While singing is held to be energetically costly, quantitative studies in mammals are lacking. Here, we present an exploratory analysis of energetic costs in a singing bat (Mystacina tuberculata). We recorded the songs of 12 male bats and quantified skin temperature (Tsk) responses using temperature telemetry to estimate energy expenditure. We hypothesised that singing would be energetically costly and predicted correlations between Tsk and song duty cycle and between duty cycle and body size. Contrary to our expectations, we found estimated energetic expenditure while singing to be comparatively low. We also found no relationship between estimated energy expenditure and duty cycle, and neither estimated energy expenditure nor duty cycle was correlated with body size. Our results suggest that energetic costs of singing in bats may be lower than previously assumed, and that song output may convey only limited fitness information.
Significance statement
Song is commonly used to communicate information related to mate-attraction or territory defence. Some aspects of song production require more energy to produce, making them an honest signal of a singer’s investment. While our knowledge of bird song and its relationship to mating success is well developed, a similar understanding regarding mammalian song is severely lacking. Numerous bat species produce song, yet we know little about the energetics of song production in this large and diverse order. Using temperature telemetry, we estimate the costs of singing in a free-living lek-breeding bat. To our knowledge, this is the first study to estimate the energetic costs of song production in a mammal.
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All data generated or analysed during this study have been made available as Electronic Supplementary Material.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank T. Thurley, A. Baddeley and T. Wright for assistance in the field, the New Zealand Department of Conservation for housing in Pureora and Te Maru o Rereahu Iwi for their support of the project. The authors would also like to thank A.E. McKechnie and M.S. Wojciechowski for helpful discussions about analyses, and two anonymous reviewers whose comments on an earlier version of the manuscript greatly improved its quality.
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KC was supported to undertake this work by a University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarship.
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All authors were involved in conception and design of the experiment. KC conducted the field work. KC and ZJC analysed the data. KC, ZJC and SP wrote the manuscript.
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All applicable international, national and institutional guidelines for the use of animals were followed. All procedures were approved by the University of Auckland Animal Ethics Committee (AEC-R1782) and by the New Zealand Department of Conservation (50435-FAU).
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Collier, K., Parsons, S. & Czenze, Z.J. Thermal energetics of male courtship song in a lek-breeding bat. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 76, 36 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-022-03141-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-022-03141-5