Biology subjects

Fernandez, A. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Fernandez, A. A..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Socially transmitted knowledge of hibernation sites in bats

In temperate regions around the world, bats travel long distances every winter to gather at hibernation sites. A longstanding hypothesis is that each new generation of bats learns about the locations of these sites (called hibernacula) from older individuals, yet clear and compelling evidence demonstrating social transmission of this knowledge has been lacking. Here, we compiled 30,882 observations from 1985 to 2023 of 13,852 Greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis) that were banded and observed at summer roosts, winter hibernacula, or both. Our analyses revealed four lines of evidence that Greater mouse-eared bats find suitable hibernacula using social information acquired at summer roosts. First, naive yearlings were more likely to be seen sharing their first hibernacula with adults from their summer birth colony relative to a null model where bats moved independently. Second, adult bats were also more likely to co-switch together into the same hibernacula across winters than expected from independent movements. Third, bats that roosted together in the summer were more likely to share a different site as a hibernaculum during the winter: being observed together during a summer changed the probability of a pair being observed together during a winter from 5% to 12%. Finally, high-resolution tracking revealed an instance of tandem flights to hibernacula sites during the summer, demonstrating that yearlings can learn from experienced adult bats months before hibernation. Together, our findings show that maternity colonies serve as "information centers" where females acquire knowledge of suitable hibernation sites throughout their long lives.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2024

Maternal behavior influences vocal practice and learning processes in the greater sac-winged bat

Learning, particularly vocal learning, is often a social process. In human infants, it is well-established that social interactions influence speech acquisition and are hypothesized to modulate attentiveness and sensory processes, thereby affecting the speech-learning process. However, our understanding of how social interactions shape vocal ontogenetic processes in non-human mammals, particularly those which vocally learn, remains limited. In the bat Saccopteryx bilineata, pups acquire the adult vocal repertoire through a distinctive babbling behavior that shows interesting similarities to human infant babbling. While babbling encompasses many different syllable types, it is particularly noteworthy that pups learn song syllables by imitating adult singing males. The pups social environment involves frequent interactions with their mothers, whereas adult males mainly serve as the primary source of acoustic input. We monitored the vocal ontogeny of wild pups, investigating whether their social environment influenced three aspects of babbling: the amount of vocal practice, the pups final syllable repertoire size and the production of the syllable types acquired through vocal learning. The results demonstrate that maternal behavioral displays significantly influence the amount of vocal practice, the presence and versatility of song syllable types in babbling and the percentage of mature song syllables. Our findings show that maternal feedback plays a significant role in the vocal ontogeny and learning processes of S. bilineata, thus enhancing our understanding of the relationship between social feedback and vocal development in mammalian vocal learners.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2021

Social behaviour and vocalizations of the tent-roosting Honduran White Bat

Bats are highly gregarious animals, displaying a large spectrum of social systems with different organizational structures. One important factor shaping sociality is group stability. To maintain group cohesion and stability, bats often rely on social vocal communication. The Honduran white bat, Ectophylla alba exhibits an unusual social structure compared to other tent-roosting species. This small white-furred bat lives in perennial stable mixed-sex groups. Tent construction requires several individuals and, as the only tent roosting species so far, involves both sexes. The bats social system and ecology render this species an interesting candidate to study social behaviour and social vocal communication. In our study, we investigated the social behaviour and vocalizations of E. alba in the tent by observing two stable groups, including pups, in the wild. We documented 16 different behaviours, among others, play and fur chewing, a behaviour presumably used for scent-marking. Moreover, we found 10 distinct social call types in addition to echolocation calls, and, for seven call types, we were able to identify the corresponding behavioural context. Most of the social call types were affiliative, including two types of contact calls, maternal directives, pup isolation calls and a call type related to the fur-chewing behaviour. In sum, this study entails an ethogram and describes the first vocal repertoire of a tent-roosting phyllostomid bat, providing the basis for further in-depth studies about the sociality and vocal communication in E. alba.

animal behavior and cognition↗