Greater mouse-eared bats mimic the buzzing sound of stinging insects like wasps, likely to scare off predators.
Once they teamed up, the researchers recorded the bats’ buzzing in the wild with microphones. They then used a computer program to compare the sounds with those made naturally by honey bees and European hornets , which share habitat with both bats and owls. The program was only able to distinguish between the bats and the bugs about half of the time, a sign the buzzes are acoustically similar.
The scientists then set up an experiment in the lab to test predators’ responses to the buzz. They played both the bat and the insect recordings, as well as a control sound from a different nonbuzzing bat species, for eight barn owls and eight tawny owls , which nest in the same crevices as the stinging insects. Half of the owls were raised in captivity, whereas half were wild-caught.
The birds reacted consistently to both the bat and the bug sounds, darting away from the speaker in response to the buzzing. The wild owls had a stronger response to the sounds, possibly because of their prior exposure to stinging insects, Russo says. Some tried to fly away from the noise, whereas none of the captive owls tried to mount an actual escape. The findingPfennig wonders how vulnerable the owls actually are to bee or hornet stings in the wild.
Despite this, the study is still “really cool,” Pfennig says. “Mimicry is one of the best examples of natural selection in action.”
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