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Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization

Animals have evolved different cognitive processes to localize crucial resources that are difficult to find. Relevant cognitive processes such as associative learning and spatial memory have commonly been studied in a foraging related context under controlled laboratory conditions. However, in natur...

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Autores principales: Hernández-Montero, Jesús R., Reusch, Christine, Simon, Ralph, Schöner, Caroline Regina, Kerth, Gerald
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7165157/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32236689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04634-8
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author Hernández-Montero, Jesús R.
Reusch, Christine
Simon, Ralph
Schöner, Caroline Regina
Kerth, Gerald
author_facet Hernández-Montero, Jesús R.
Reusch, Christine
Simon, Ralph
Schöner, Caroline Regina
Kerth, Gerald
author_sort Hernández-Montero, Jesús R.
collection PubMed
description Animals have evolved different cognitive processes to localize crucial resources that are difficult to find. Relevant cognitive processes such as associative learning and spatial memory have commonly been studied in a foraging related context under controlled laboratory conditions. However, in natural environments, animals can use multiple cognitive processes to localize resources. In this field study, we used a pairwise choice experiment and automatic roost monitoring to assess how individually marked, free-ranging Bechstein’s bats belonging to two different colonies use associative learning, spatial memory and social information when localizing suitable day roosts. To our knowledge, this study tests for the first time how associative learning, spatial memory and social information are used in the process of roost localization in bats under the natural conditions. We show that, when searching for new roosts, bats used associative learning to discriminate between suitable and unsuitable roosts. For re-localizing previously occupied roosts, bats used spatial memory rather than associative learning. Moreover, bats significantly improved the localization of suitable unfamiliar roosts and tended to increase their accuracy to re-localize previously occupied day roosts using social information. Our field experiments suggest that Bechstein’s bats make hierarchical use of different cognitive processes when localizing day roosts. More generally, our study underlines that evaluating different cues under natural conditions is fundamental to understanding how natural selection has shaped the cognitive processes used for localizing resources. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00442-020-04634-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-71651572020-04-24 Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization Hernández-Montero, Jesús R. Reusch, Christine Simon, Ralph Schöner, Caroline Regina Kerth, Gerald Oecologia Behavioral Ecology–Original Research Animals have evolved different cognitive processes to localize crucial resources that are difficult to find. Relevant cognitive processes such as associative learning and spatial memory have commonly been studied in a foraging related context under controlled laboratory conditions. However, in natural environments, animals can use multiple cognitive processes to localize resources. In this field study, we used a pairwise choice experiment and automatic roost monitoring to assess how individually marked, free-ranging Bechstein’s bats belonging to two different colonies use associative learning, spatial memory and social information when localizing suitable day roosts. To our knowledge, this study tests for the first time how associative learning, spatial memory and social information are used in the process of roost localization in bats under the natural conditions. We show that, when searching for new roosts, bats used associative learning to discriminate between suitable and unsuitable roosts. For re-localizing previously occupied roosts, bats used spatial memory rather than associative learning. Moreover, bats significantly improved the localization of suitable unfamiliar roosts and tended to increase their accuracy to re-localize previously occupied day roosts using social information. Our field experiments suggest that Bechstein’s bats make hierarchical use of different cognitive processes when localizing day roosts. More generally, our study underlines that evaluating different cues under natural conditions is fundamental to understanding how natural selection has shaped the cognitive processes used for localizing resources. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00442-020-04634-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2020-03-31 2020 /pmc/articles/PMC7165157/ /pubmed/32236689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04634-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Behavioral Ecology–Original Research
Hernández-Montero, Jesús R.
Reusch, Christine
Simon, Ralph
Schöner, Caroline Regina
Kerth, Gerald
Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
title Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
title_full Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
title_fullStr Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
title_full_unstemmed Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
title_short Free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
title_sort free-ranging bats combine three different cognitive processes for roost localization
topic Behavioral Ecology–Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7165157/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32236689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04634-8
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