| immune profile predicts survival and reflects senescence in a small, long-lived mammal, the greater sac-winged bat (saccopteryx bilineata). | the immune system imposes costs that may have to be traded against investment of resources in other costly life-history traits. yet, it is unknown if a trade-off between immunity and longevity occurs in free-ranging mammals. here, we tested if age and survival, two aspects associated with longevity, are linked to immune parameters in an 8 g bat species. using a combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal data, we assessed whether total white blood cell (wbc) counts, bacterial killing ability ... | 2014 | 25254988 |
| independent evolution of functional mhc class ii drb genes in new world bat species. | genes of the major histocompatibility complex (mhc) play a pivotal role in the vertebrate immune system and are attractive markers for functional, fitness-related, genetic variation. although bats (chiroptera) represent the second largest mammalian order and are prone to various emerging infectious diseases, little is known about mhc evolution in bats. in the present study, we examined expressed mhc class ii drb sequences (exons 1 to 4) of new world bat species, saccopteryx bilineata, carollia p ... | 2012 | 22426641 |
| cryptic species? patterns of maternal and paternal gene flow in eight neotropical bats. | levels of sequence divergence at mitochondrial loci are frequently used in phylogeographic analysis and species delimitation though single marker systems cannot assess bi-parental gene flow. in this investigation i compare the phylogeographic patterns revealed through the maternally inherited mitochondrial coi region and the paternally inherited 7(th) intron region of the dby gene on the y-chromosome in eight common neotropical bat species. these species are diverse and include members of two fa ... | 2011 | 21814545 |
| distress calls of a fast-flying bat (molossus molossus) provoke inspection flights but not cooperative mobbing. | many birds and mammals produce distress calls when captured. bats often approach speakers playing conspecific distress calls, which has led to the hypothesis that bat distress calls promote cooperative mobbing. an alternative explanation is that approaching bats are selfishly assessing predation risk. previous playback studies on bat distress calls involved species with highly maneuverable flight, capable of making close passes and tight circles around speakers, which can look like mobbing. we b ... | 2015 | 26353118 |
| dynamics of the echolocation beam during prey pursuit in aerial hawking bats. | in the evolutionary arms race between prey and predator, measures and countermeasures continuously evolve to increase survival on both sides. bats and moths are prime examples. when exposed to intense ultrasound, eared moths perform dramatic escape behaviors. vespertilionid and rhinolophid bats broaden their echolocation beam in the final stage of pursuit, presumably as a countermeasure to keep evading moths within their "acoustic field of view." in this study, we investigated if dynamic beam br ... | 2015 | 26080398 |
| mhc-dependent mate choice is linked to a trace-amine-associated receptor gene in a mammal. | major histocompatibility complex (mhc) genes play a pivotal role in vertebrate self/nonself recognition, parasite resistance and life history decisions. in evolutionary terms, the mhc's exceptional diversity is likely maintained by sexual and pathogen-driven selection. even though mhc-dependent mating preferences have been confirmed for many species, the sensory and genetic mechanisms underlying mate recognition remain cryptic. since olfaction is crucial for social communication in vertebrates, ... | 2016 | 27941813 |
| responsiveness to conspecific distress calls is influenced by day-roost proximity in bats (saccopteryx bilineata). | distress calls signal extreme physical distress, e.g. being caught by a predator. in many bat species, distress calls attract conspecifics. because bats often occupy perennial day-roosts, they might adapt their responsiveness according to the social relevance in which distress calls are broadcast. specifically, we hypothesized that conspecific distress calls broadcast within or in proximity to the day-roost would elicit a stronger responsiveness than distress calls broadcast at a foraging site. ... | 2016 | 27293797 |
| bat echolocation calls facilitate social communication. | bat echolocation is primarily used for orientation and foraging but also holds great potential for social communication. the communicative function of echolocation calls is still largely unstudied, especially in the wild. eavesdropping on vocal signatures encoding social information in echolocation calls has not, to our knowledge, been studied in free-living bats so far. we analysed echolocation calls of the polygynous bat saccopteryx bilineata and found pronounced vocal signatures encoding sex ... | 2012 | 23034703 |
| scents of adolescence: the maturation of the olfactory phenotype in a free-ranging mammal. | olfaction is an important sensory modality for mate recognition in many mammal species. odorants provide information about the health status, genotype, dominance status and/or reproductive status. how and when odor profiles change during sexual maturation is, however often unclear, particularly in free-ranging mammals. here, we investigated whether the wing sac odorant of male greater sac-winged bats (saccopteryx bilineata, emballonuridae) differs between young and adults, and thus offers inform ... | 2011 | 21738615 |
| frequency alternation and an offbeat rhythm indicate foraging behavior in the echolocating bat, saccopteryx bilineata. | the greater sac-winged bat, saccopteryx bilineata (emballonuridae), uses two distinct echolocation call sequences: a 'monotonous' sequence, where bats emit ~48 khz calls at a relatively stable rate, and a frequency-alternating sequence, where bats emit calls at ~45 khz (low-note call) and ~48 khz (high-note call). the frequencies of these low-high-note pairs remain stable within sequences. in panama, we recorded echolocation calls from s. bilineata with a multi-microphone array at two sites: one ... | 2011 | 21327333 |
| complex vocal imitation during ontogeny in a bat. | vocal imitation--the ability to learn a previously unknown acoustic signal from a tutor--is considered to be a key innovation in the evolution of speech. this faculty is very rare and patchily distributed within the animal kingdom, suggesting multiple instances of convergent evolution. it has long been predicted that bats should be capable of vocal imitation and our results provide evidence for this phenomenon. we report that pups of the bat saccopteryx bilineata learn a complex vocalization thr ... | 2010 | 19812069 |
| female-biased dispersal and patrilocal kin groups in a mammal with resource-defence polygyny. | in most mammals, dispersal rates are higher in males than in females. using behavioural and genetic data of individually marked bats, we show that this general pattern is reversed in the greater sac-winged bat (saccopteryx bilineata). dispersal is significantly female biased and male philopatry in combination with rare male immigration causes a patrilineal colony structure. female dispersal helps avoid father-daughter inbreeding, as male tenure exceeds female age at first breeding in this bat sp ... | 2007 | 17913693 |
| non-neutral evolution of the major histocompatibility complex class ii gene drb1 in the sac-winged bat saccopteryx bilineata. | the immune genes of the major histocompatibility complex (mhc) are classical examples for high levels of genetic diversity and non-neutral evolution. this is particularly true for the regions containing the antigen-binding sites as, for instance, in the exon 2 of the mhc class ii gene drb. we surveyed, for the first time in the order chiroptera, the genetic diversity within this exon in the sac-winged bat saccopteryx bilineata. we detected 11 alleles among 85 bats, of which 79 were sampled in on ... | 2007 | 17519971 |
| babbling behavior in the sac-winged bat (saccopteryx bilineata). | infant babbling in humans and a few other primates plays an important role in allowing the young to practice the adult vocal repertoire during early behavioral development. vocalizations uttered during babbling resemble, to some degree, the acoustic structure of adult vocalizations and are often produced in long bouts independent of any social context. similar behavior, termed subsong or plastic song, is known from a variety of songbirds. here, we show that pups of the sac-winged bat (saccoptery ... | 2006 | 16736178 |
| genetic mating system and the significance of harem associations in the bat saccopteryx bilineata. | we analysed the polygynous mating system of the bat saccopteryx bilineata using behaviour observations and genetic data on 11 microsatellite dna loci. basic social units in s. bilineata are harem groups that consist of single males and up to eight females. colonies comprise several harem groups, and the composition of colonies and harems is often stable over several reproductive seasons. the combination of parentage exclusion and likelihood-based parentage assignment in this study produced detai ... | 2003 | 12492890 |
| highly polymorphic microsatellite markers in the white-lined bat (saccopteryx bilineata). | | 2000 | 10672172 |
| comparison of methods for rhythm analysis of complex animals' acoustic signals. | analyzing the rhythm of animals' acoustic signals is of interest to a growing number of researchers: evolutionary biologists want to disentangle how these structures evolved and what patterns can be found, and ecologists and conservation biologists aim to discriminate cryptic species on the basis of parameters of acoustic signals such as temporal structures. temporal structures are also relevant for research on vocal production learning, a part of which is for the animal to learn a temporal stru ... | 2020 | 32267836 |
| general isochronous rhythm in echolocation calls and social vocalizations of the bat saccopteryx bilineata. | rhythm is an essential component of human speech and music but very little is known about its evolutionary origin and its distribution in animal vocalizations. we found a regular rhythm in three multisyllabic vocalization types (echolocation call sequences, male territorial songs and pup isolation calls) of the neotropical bat saccopteryx bilineata. the intervals between element onsets were used to fit the rhythm for each individual. for echolocation call sequences, we expected rhythm frequencie ... | 2019 | 30800360 |
| bat songs as acoustic beacons - male territorial songs attract dispersing females. | male song in birds and mammals is important for repelling rivals, stimulating mates or attracting them to a specific location. nevertheless, direct experimental evidence for the mate attraction function of male song is limited to a few studies. here, we provide strong experimental evidence that male songs attract wild female bats (saccopteryx bilineata). playbacks of territorial songs reliably elicited phonotaxis in females but not males. most females captured during playbacks were subadults sea ... | 2017 | 29066803 |