Mouse-eared bats make sounds like buzzing hornets, in an apparent attempt to avoid being eaten—a remarkable adaptation not previously seen in a mammal
into poisonous larvae. Flower-loving hoverflies evolved to look just like stinging, unpalatable wasps., an evolutionary trick which leads a relatively harmless animal to copy a more dangerous species to scare off would-be predators.
Back in 1999, Russo was working to set up a call library for echolocation calls of European bats and collecting data about how various species communicate amongst themselves. While extracting a small mouse-eared bat from a mist-net, holding it in his hands, the creature started shivering and emitting a continuous, intense buzz, Russo says. Russo was surprised.Initially, the researchers speculated that the buzzing was just an everyday distress call.
Then, through speakers, the researchers played back two insect buzzing sounds. One was the sound of a buzzing bat, the other was a bat’s social call to some captive and wild owls from two different species, barn owls and tawny owls. “They surely know it is a dangerous encounter,” says Russo. That’s also why he argues this type of Batesian mimicry is probably a technique deployed when a bat has been captured and wants to buy itself some time to buzz off.
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