It is accepted that bats communicate with bats of the same species, and the frequency of this is indicative of the bat species. But can bats communicate with those from another species?
We are licensed to care for bats in the UK, and those who are in our care and that we are rehabilitating are common pipistrelles, apart from one other, which is a Natterer's bat. He is in a tank by himself but in the same room as the pipistrelles.
He will be aware of the presence of the pipistrelles, who clearly communicate between themselves, but it would be good to know if he could communicate with them to some degree. He will be with us for a bit longer; he still has a wing that is weaker than the other, and could not fly well enough when we tested him to allow him to survive in the wild. And winter (and hibernation) will be coming.
In general they can, but that doesn't mean that it is true in all cases. This article may have some hints:
Article Interspecific acoustic recognition in two European bat communities
Dr Eyal Shochat
Thank you so much for this reference; I have recommended it on ResearchGate. I have downloaded it, read it quickly, highlighting the relevant bits and am going to return to it later. ResearchGate suggested some other articles which I also downloaded. One is referenced in the article you suggested.
I have just been looking at our copy of the book 'British Bat Calls; A Guide to Species Identification' by Jon Russ.
I am wondering if the Natterer's bat and the Common Pipistrelle bats would understand each others' distress calls:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8JM3BAAAQBAJ&printsec=copyright&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=distress&f=false
See 4.2.8.2
But I would rather it was their other communications. The common pipistrelles are quite vocal, especially when food is coming, and I don't think they sound distressed! They sometimes come down to sample it (as does the Natterer's) after I have finished the cleaning but before I have quite finished food provision.
Dear Mary C R Wilson
I am an entomologist, I often visit our caves. I am not an expert in the field of bats, but I can argue that these are complex social animals. I have seen in places where bats congregate in caves, they create clusters of 2-3 species. They hunt together. When the bats are resting, the smaller species is located within the colony.
Regards, Sergey Viktorovich Pushkin
Thank you Prof Sergey Viktorovich Pushkin
What you wrote is encouraging; Last night the Natterer's bat was feeding at the same time as one of the pipistrelles in the vivarium. I would like to think that they were aware of eating together. When all the food was gone, I put in a few more mealworms, and again, they was eating at the same time. But it could have had been because they were both aware of a second helping arriving!?
Neda Ravankhah
Thank you so much! I have downloaded three full texts / full text from elsewhere and requested three full texts from ResearchGate. I do appreciate your help with this and am looking forward to reading the papers.
All the very best wishes for your PhD and thanks again,
Mary
Yesterday, Dr Angeles Salles and Dr Gloriana Chaverri made their full texts available to me. Thank you!
And thank you again to Neda Ravankhah
for making me aware of them. Now I have plenty to look at.May you all stay safe,
Mary
This question has been marked 'solved' but it is still open. I would still like to know what other researchers think.
Thank you in anticipation of any more help!
Spring has been late in the UK, but is coming now and there are more insects about.
So we tried to see if our Natterer's bat could fly, two nights ago.
Unfortunately, he couldn't fly; just about a meter, went down and scampered away to the other side of the room at great speed. We feel his wings are not symmetrical and he does not use one as well at the other.
So, I think he will have to stay with us.
But he grooms, looks well, eats very well, and 'squeaks' sometimes to acknowledge me putting his food in for him.
We will let him have a run across the floor, as this seemed to be his chosen method of locomotion, but also provide plenty of hiding places at ground level.
We have not been aware of any communication between him and the common pipistrelles.
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