Abstract
Eavesdropping predators sometimes show preferences for certain prey signal variants, yet the ultimate and proximate reasons for such preferences are often unclear. The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, eavesdrops on the advertisement calls of male túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, and shows a marked preference for complex (adorned) calls over simple (non-adorned) calls. We hypothesized that this preference stems from perceptual biases in the sensory and/or cognitive systems of T. cirrhosus. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a series of preference experiments in which we presented bats with various modified simple calls, each altered to possess one of the acoustic properties that distinguish complex calls from simple calls. We reasoned that if perceptual bias accounts for the bat’s preference for complex calls, then a novel stimulus with similar acoustic properties to the complex call should be attractive as well (i.e., the preference should be permissive). Except for weak evidence suggesting that the longer duration of complex calls could contribute to their greater attractiveness to T. cirrhosus, we did not find any indication that perceptual biases account for this eavesdropper preference. Instead, we suggest that T. cirrhosus developed their preference for call complexity because eavesdropping on complex calls provides greater fitness benefits than eavesdropping on simple calls, for example, because eavesdropping on complex calls may increase probability of prey capture and/or lead to more profitable food patches.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the government of the Republic of Panamá for their permission to work in Gamboa and Soberanía National Park and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for providing critical logistical support and infrastructure. Sara Troxell, Sean Griffin, Martha Moscoso, and Patricia Jones helped with capturing and caring for bats. The authors are also grateful to Michael J. Ryan for supplying the túngara frog recordings and to Ximena Bernal, Patricia Jones, Michael Caldwell, Michael J. Ryan, Christian Voigt, Gloriana Chaverri, and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on previous versions of the manuscript. This study was supported by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec-Nature et Technologies, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the Vanier Canada Graduate Fellowship Program.
Ethical standards
The authors declare that the experiments conducted in this research comply with the current laws in the Republic of Panamá. All work was approved by the Panamanian Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente (ANAM permits: SEA-95-10 and SEA-46-11) and the Smithsonian Institution (IACUC permit: 20100816-1012-16).
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Fugère, V., Teague O’Mara, M. & Page, R.A. Perceptual bias does not explain preference for prey call adornment in the frog-eating bat. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 69, 1353–1364 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1949-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-015-1949-2