New bioacoustics article in Animal Behaviour on the question if bats can communicate by echolocation

[Anna Bastian <>]

Dear all

our latest open access article is available here: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.03.005

We explored if echolocation can be used for communication and highlight the difference between eavesdropping on cues and communicating through signals.

In brief, listeners were able to perceive vocal signatures of different individuals as well as between males and females.
However, the findings also indicate that the adaptive acoustic structure of echolocation pulses limits its versatility as a potential communication signal.
The trade-off might be circumvented by a newly described modified pulse form, facilitating the dual functionality for orientation/foraging and communication.

Many greetings!

* * * * * * * * * * *
Dr. Anna Bastian

University of Cape Town

Animal Evolution and Systematics Group

Department of Biological Sciences
Room 3.32

Tel: +27 (0)21 6502405

Fax: +27 (0)21 6502718

Email: m("uct.ac.za","anna.bastian");" class="gmail-m_-921774299824399504m_-3751965654789824347gmail-b4g-track-wont gmail-m_-921774299824399504m_-3751965654789824347b4g-track-wont gmail-m_-921774299824399504b4g-track-wont" target="_blank"> anna.bastian@uct.ac.za or m("gmail.com","anna0bastian");" class="gmail-m_-921774299824399504m_-3751965654789824347gmail-b4g-track-wont gmail-m_-921774299824399504m_-3751965654789824347b4g-track-wont gmail-m_-921774299824399504b4g-track-wont" target="_blank">

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