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Echolocation signals reflect niche differentiation in five sympatric congeneric bat species

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  • Björn M. Siemers

    (University of Tübingen)

  • Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler

    (University of Tübingen)

Abstract

Echolocating bats can be divided into guilds according to their preferred habitat and foraging behaviour1,2,3,4, which coincide with distinct adaptations in wing morphology5 and structure of echolocation signals6. Although coarse structuring of niche space between different guilds is generally accepted, it is not clear how niches differ within guilds7,8,9,10, or whether there is fine-grained niche differentiation reflected in echolocation signal structure11,12. Using a standardized performance test, here we show clutter-dependent differences in prey-capture success for bats from five species of European Myotis. These species are morphologically similar, sympatric13, and all belong to the guild labelled “edge space aerial/trawling foragers”4. We further demonstrate a strong correlation between the prey-detection ability of the species and the respective search-call bandwidth. Our findings indicate that differences in echolocation signals contribute to within-guild niche differentiation. This is the first study relating sensory abilities of a set of potentially competing animal species to a direct measure of their respective foraging performance, suggesting an important role of sensory ecology in the structuring of animal communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Björn M. Siemers & Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler, 2004. "Echolocation signals reflect niche differentiation in five sympatric congeneric bat species," Nature, Nature, vol. 429(6992), pages 657-661, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:429:y:2004:i:6992:d:10.1038_nature02547
    DOI: 10.1038/nature02547
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    Cited by:

    1. Lore Thaler & Galen M Reich & Xinyu Zhang & Dinghe Wang & Graeme E Smith & Zeng Tao & Raja Syamsul Azmir Bin Raja Abdullah & Mikhail Cherniakov & Christopher J Baker & Daniel Kish & Michail Antoniou, 2017. "Mouth-clicks used by blind expert human echolocators – signal description and model based signal synthesis," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Danilo Russo & Luca Cistrone & Gareth Jones, 2012. "Sensory Ecology of Water Detection by Bats: A Field Experiment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(10), pages 1-9, October.
    3. Dieter Vanderelst & Jonas Reijniers & Jan Steckel & Herbert Peremans, 2011. "Information Generated by the Moving Pinnae of Rhinolophus rouxi: Tuning of the Morphology at Different Harmonics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(6), pages 1-11, June.

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