Abstract
Echolocating bats need to solve the problem of signal jamming by conspecifics when they are in a group. However, while several mechanisms have been suggested, it remains unclear how bats avoid confusion between their own echoes and interfering sounds in a complex acoustic environment. Here, we fixed on-board microphones onto individual frequency-modulating bats flying in groups. We found that group members broaden the inter-individual differences in the terminal frequencies of pulses, thereby decreasing the similarity of pulses among individuals. To understand what features most affect similarity between pulses, we calculated the similarity of signals mimicking pulses. We found that the similarity between those artificial signals was decreased most by manipulation of terminal frequency. These results demonstrate that the signal jamming problem is solved by this simple strategy, which may be universally used by animals that use active sensing, such as echolocating bats and electric fish, thereby transcending species and sensory modalities.
Highlights
Echolocating bats need to solve the problem of signal jamming by conspecifics when they are in a group
When acoustic communication occurs among a large group of individuals, multiple sound sources produced by conspecifics create a complex auditory scene, presenting what is known as the cocktail party problem[6,7,8,9]
The results suggested that echolocating bats flying in groups broaden the inter-individual differences in terminal frequency in order to decrease the similarity of pulses between individuals
Summary
Echolocating bats need to solve the problem of signal jamming by conspecifics when they are in a group. We found that the similarity between those artificial signals was decreased most by manipulation of terminal frequency These results demonstrate that the signal jamming problem is solved by this simple strategy, which may be universally used by animals that use active sensing, such as echolocating bats and electric fish, thereby transcending species and sensory modalities. The results suggested that echolocating bats flying in groups broaden the inter-individual differences in terminal frequency in order to decrease the similarity of pulses between individuals. This frequency-shifting jamming avoidance response may be universally used by animals using active sensing, such as echolocating bats and electric fish, transcending species and sensory modality borders
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