New paper on bats using echolocation to identify each other

For echolocating bats, each bat is almost always producing biosonar pulses as it "looks" around. So when bats are flying or roosting in the same place, do they recognize the voices of all the bats nearby? Do they have an omnidirectional mental ‘image’ of who is around them at all times? https://youtu.be/3eFORbGoX_Y Here's a closeup … Continue reading New paper on bats using echolocation to identify each other

Gleaning bats that can detect motionless prey still prefer moving katydids

New paper: Geipel* I, Kernan* CE, Litterer AS, Carter GG, Page RA, ter Hofstede HM. 2020. Predation risks of signalling and searching: bats prefer katydids in motion in Biology Letters. When I was a kid, I would throw tiny pebbles or bits of wood in the air when bats were foraging, and the bats would often … Continue reading Gleaning bats that can detect motionless prey still prefer moving katydids

Social structure of frog-eating bats

There's a new a paper out today entitled “Social structure and relatedness in the fringe-lipped bat (Trachops cirrhosus)” in Royal Society Open Science, by Victoria Flores, me, Tanja Halczok, Gerald Kerth, and Rachel Page (who was an advisor for Victoria as a PhD student and for me as a Postdoc). The fringe-lipped bat is an … Continue reading Social structure of frog-eating bats

‘Next-generation’ sensor networks for small animals (and other news)

We have a new paper, "Thinking small: Next-generation sensor networks close the size gap in vertebrate biologging", out in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Ohio State News did a great article summarizing the work. Congratulations to Bridget Brown, who successfully defended her MSc thesis, "Do bats use olfactory cues to find roosts?". Bridget is interested … Continue reading ‘Next-generation’ sensor networks for small animals (and other news)

New paper: how vampire bats form new food-sharing bonds.

We have a new paper out today in Current Biology and it is featured in the New York Times (pdf), National Geographic, CNN, Scientific American, Discover, Phys.org, Cosmos and I have two radio interviews tomorrow for NPR and BBC. Doing these media interviews has been a pleasant 'distraction' from the coronavirus pandemic which is days … Continue reading New paper: how vampire bats form new food-sharing bonds.

New paper: When sickness changes a social network, different kinds of social ties respond in different ways

This photo, taken under a bridge in Panama, shows two vampire bats. The bat on the left that looks clean and healthy; the one on the right is covered with bat flies and guano and looks to be having a bad day. Do vampire bats avoid groupmates that seem sick? It probably depends on the disease … Continue reading New paper: When sickness changes a social network, different kinds of social ties respond in different ways

New preprint: Evidence for unfamiliar kin recognition in vampire bats

... by Simon Ripperger, Rachel Page, Frieder Mayer, and Gerry Carter. I would love to get early feedback on this one, so please email me if you have any. We submitted it to Biology Letters. Here's the preprint (what's a preprint?) at BioRxiv: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.16.874057v1 Common vampire bat (Traer Scott) ABSTRACT: Kin discrimination allows organisms to … Continue reading New preprint: Evidence for unfamiliar kin recognition in vampire bats

Vote for our lab! You can vote every day until Dec 31!

The study from our previous post was selected as one of the 5 competitors for “Coolest Science Story of the Year” at The Ohio State University. LINK: https://news.osu.edu/we-chose-five-of-our-favorites-you-pick-the-winner/ Please vote for us and spread the word! Everyone can actually vote multiple times: every day until Dec 31.

New paper: Vampire bats that cooperate in the lab maintain their social networks in the wild

Here's the paper in Current Biology. The press coverage included PBS, CNN, NPR , BBC, Nature Magazine, Science Magazine, Science News, Popular Science, The Ohio State University, Cosmos Magazine, Wissenschaft, El Mundo, ZME Science, SciShow, and EurekaAlert Press release (video below). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeAiUBM18Cs Take home message: Halloween is a good day to publish a paper on … Continue reading New paper: Vampire bats that cooperate in the lab maintain their social networks in the wild

Latest paper suggests there are two kinds social grooming in vampire bats (and some other updates)

A recent paper from our group (Team Vampire 2017) suggests that vampire bats might perform two different kinds of social grooming. First, a focal vampire bat is more likely to start allogrooming a bat next to them right after grooming themselves. Imagine a cat in your lap that is licking itself and then starts licking … Continue reading Latest paper suggests there are two kinds social grooming in vampire bats (and some other updates)