Echolocation call description of 15 species of Middle-Eastern desert dwelling insectivorous bats

Abstract

Modern advances in acoustic technology have made possible new and broad ranges of research in bioacoustics, particularly with regard to echolocating bats. In the present study, we present an acoustic guide to the calls of 15 species of bats in the Arava rift valley, Israel, with a focus on their bioacoustics, habitat use and explaining differences between similar species. We also describe a potential case of frequency separation where four bat species using six call types appear to separate the frequencies of their calls to minimize overlap. The studied community of bat species is also found in other Middle Eastern deserts including the deserts of Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia and we hope that data gathered will benefit other bat researchers in the region.