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Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources

Olfactory tracking generally sacrifices speed for sensitivity, but some fast-moving animals appear surprisingly efficient at foraging by smell. Here, we analysed the olfactory tracking strategies of flying bats foraging for fruit. Fruit- and nectar-feeding bats use odour cues to find food despite th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Brokaw, Alyson F., Davis, Evynn, Page, Rachel A., Smotherman, Michael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8526173/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34665992
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0430
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author Brokaw, Alyson F.
Davis, Evynn
Page, Rachel A.
Smotherman, Michael
author_facet Brokaw, Alyson F.
Davis, Evynn
Page, Rachel A.
Smotherman, Michael
author_sort Brokaw, Alyson F.
collection PubMed
description Olfactory tracking generally sacrifices speed for sensitivity, but some fast-moving animals appear surprisingly efficient at foraging by smell. Here, we analysed the olfactory tracking strategies of flying bats foraging for fruit. Fruit- and nectar-feeding bats use odour cues to find food despite the sensory challenges derived from fast flight speeds and echolocation. We trained Jamaican fruit-eating bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) to locate an odour reward and reconstructed their flight paths in three-dimensional space. Results confirmed that bats relied upon olfactory cues to locate a reward. Flight paths revealed a combination of odour- and memory-guided search strategies. During ‘inspection flights’, bats significantly reduced flight speeds and flew within approximately 6 cm of possible targets to evaluate the presence or absence of the odour cue. This behaviour combined with echolocation explains how bats maximize foraging efficiency while compensating for trade-offs associated with olfactory detection and locomotion.
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spelling pubmed-85261732021-10-25 Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources Brokaw, Alyson F. Davis, Evynn Page, Rachel A. Smotherman, Michael Biol Lett Animal Behaviour Olfactory tracking generally sacrifices speed for sensitivity, but some fast-moving animals appear surprisingly efficient at foraging by smell. Here, we analysed the olfactory tracking strategies of flying bats foraging for fruit. Fruit- and nectar-feeding bats use odour cues to find food despite the sensory challenges derived from fast flight speeds and echolocation. We trained Jamaican fruit-eating bats (Artibeus jamaicensis) to locate an odour reward and reconstructed their flight paths in three-dimensional space. Results confirmed that bats relied upon olfactory cues to locate a reward. Flight paths revealed a combination of odour- and memory-guided search strategies. During ‘inspection flights’, bats significantly reduced flight speeds and flew within approximately 6 cm of possible targets to evaluate the presence or absence of the odour cue. This behaviour combined with echolocation explains how bats maximize foraging efficiency while compensating for trade-offs associated with olfactory detection and locomotion. The Royal Society 2021-10-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8526173/ /pubmed/34665992 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0430 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Animal Behaviour
Brokaw, Alyson F.
Davis, Evynn
Page, Rachel A.
Smotherman, Michael
Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
title Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
title_full Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
title_fullStr Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
title_full_unstemmed Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
title_short Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
title_sort flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources
topic Animal Behaviour
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8526173/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34665992
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0430
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