Acoustic sequences in non-human animals: a tutorial review and prospectus

Animal acoustic communication often takes the form of complex sequences, made up of multiple distinct acoustic units. Apart from the well-known example of birdsong, other animals such as insects, amphibians, and mammals (including bats, rodents, primates, and cetaceans) also generate complex acoustic sequences. Occasionally, such as with birdsong, the adaptive role of these sequences seems clear (e.g. mate attraction and territorial defence). More often however, researchers have only begun to characterise - let alone understand - the significance and meaning of acoustic sequences. Hypotheses abound, but there is little agreement as to how sequences should be defined and analysed. Our review aims to outline suitable methods for testing these hypotheses, and to describe the major limitations to our current and near-future knowledge on questions of acoustic sequences. This review and prospectus is the result of a collaborative effort between 43 scientists from the fields of animal behaviour, ecology and evolution, signal processing, machine learning, quantitative linguistics, and information theory, who gathered for a 2013 workshop entitled, 'Analysing vocal sequences in animals'. Our goal is to present not just a review of the state of the art, but to propose a methodological framework that summarises what we suggest are the best practices for research in this field, across taxa and across disciplines. We also provide a tutorial-style introduction to some of the most promising algorithmic approaches for analysing sequences. We divide our review into three sections: identifying the distinct units of an acoustic sequence, describing the different ways that information can be contained within a sequence, and analysing the structure of that sequence. Each of these sections is further subdivided to address the key questions and approaches in that area. We propose a uniform, systematic, and comprehensive approach to studying sequences, with the goal of clarifying research terms used in different fields, and facilitating collaboration and comparative studies. Allowing greater interdisciplinary collaboration will facilitate the investigation of many important questions in the evolution of communication and sociality.

'No cost of echolocation for flying bats' revisited

Echolocation is energetically costly for resting bats, but previous experiments suggested echolocation to come at no costs for flying bats. Yet, previous studies did not investigate the relationship between echolocation, flight speed, aerial manoeuvres and metabolism. We re-evaluated the 'no-cost' hypothesis, by quantifying the echolocation pulse rate, the number of aerial manoeuvres (landings and U-turns), and the costs of transport in the 5-g insectivorous bat Rhogeessa io (Vespertilionidae). On average, bats (n = 15) travelled at 1.76 ± 0.36 m s⁻¹ and performed 11.2 ± 6.1 U-turns and 2.8 ± 2.9 ground landings when flying in an octagonal flight cage. Bats made more U-turns with decreasing wing loading (body weight divided by wing area). At flight, bats emitted 19.7 ± 2.7 echolocation pulses s⁻¹ (range 15.3-25.8 pulses s⁻¹), and metabolic rate averaged 2.84 ± 0.95 ml CO₂ min⁻¹, which was more than 16 times higher than at rest. Bats did not echolocate while not engaged in flight. Costs of transport were not related to the rate of echolocation pulse emission or the number of U-turns, but increased with increasing number of landings; probably as a consequence of slower travel speed when staying briefly on ground. Metabolic power of flight was lower than predicted for R. io under the assumption that energetic costs of echolocation call production is additive to the aerodynamic costs of flight. Results of our experiment are consistent with the notion that echolocation does not add large energetic costs to the aerodynamic power requirements of flight in bats.

Terrestrial locomotion imposes high metabolic requirements on bats

The evolution of powered flight involved major morphological changes in Chiroptera. Nevertheless, all bats are also capable of crawling on the ground and some are even skilled sprinters. We asked if a highly derived morphology adapted for flapping flight imposes high metabolic requirements on bats when moving on the ground. We measured the metabolic rate during terrestrial locomotion in mastiff bats, Molossus currentium; a species that is both, a fast-flying aerial-hawking bat and an agile crawler on the ground. Metabolic rates of bats averaged 8.0 ± 4.0 ml CO2 min-1 during a one minute period of sprinting at 1.3 ± 0.6 km h-1. With rising average speed, mean metabolic rates increased, reaching peak values that were similar to those of flying conspecifics. Metabolic rates of M. currentium were higher than those of similar-sized rodents under steady-state conditions that sprinted at similar velocities. When M. currentium sprinted at peak velocities its aerobic metabolic rate was 3-5 times higher than those of rodent species running continuously in steady-state condition. Costs of transport (J kg-1 m-1) were more than ten times higher for running than for flying bats. We conclude that at the same speed bats experience higher metabolic rates during short sprints than quadruped mammals during steady-state terrestrial locomotion, yet running bats achieve higher maximal mass-specific aerobic metabolic rates than non-volant mammals such as rodents.

Mechanical filtering for narrow-band hearing in the weta

This paper constitutes a major attempt to associate tympanic deflections with the mechanoreceptor organ location in an acoustic insect. The New Zealand tree weta (Hemideina thoracica) has tympanal ears located on each of the prothoracic tibiae. The tympana exhibit a sclerotized oval plate, membranous processes bulging out from the tibial cuticle and many loosely suspended ripples. We used microscanning laser Doppler vibrometry to determine how such a tympanal membrane vibrates in response to sound and whether the sclerotized region plays a role in hearing. The tympanum displays a single resonance at the calling frequency of the male, an unusual example of an insect tympana acting as a narrow bandpass filter. Both tympana resonate in phase with the stimulus and with each other. Histological sections show that the tympanal area is divided into two distinct regions, as in other ensiferans. An oval plate lies in the middle of a thickened region and is surrounded by a transparent and uniformly thin region. It is hinged dorsally to the tympanal rim and thus resembles the model of a ‘hinged flap’. The thickened region appears to act as a damping mass on the oscillation of the thin region, and vibration displacement is reduced in this area. The thinner area vibrates with higher amplitude, inducing mechanical pressure on the dorsal area adjacent to the crista acustica. We present a new model showing how the thickened region might confer a mechanical gain onto the activation of the crista acustica sensory neurons during the sound-induced oscillations.

Source levels of echolocation signals vary in correlation with wingbeat cycle in landing big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus)

Recordings of the echolocation signals of landing big brown bats with a two-dimensional 16-microphone array revealed that the source level reduction of 7 dB per halving of distance is superimposed by a variation of up to 12 dB within single call groups emitted during the approach. This variation correlates with the wingbeat cycle. The timing of call emission correlates with call group size. First pulses of groups containing many calls are emitted earlier than first calls in groups with fewer calls or single calls. This suggests that the emission of pulse groups follows a fixed motor pattern where the information gained from the preceding pulse group determines how many calls will be emitted in the next group. Single calls and call groups are centred at the middle of the upstroke. Expiration is indicated by call emission. The pause between groups is centred at the middle of the downstroke and indicates inspiration. The hypothesis that the source level variation could be caused by changes in the subglottic pressure due to the contraction of the major flight muscles is discussed.