Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources.

Alyson F Brokaw,Rachel A Page,Evynn Davis,Michael Smotherman

doi:10.1098/rsbl.2021.0430

Alyson F Brokaw, Rachel A Page + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0430

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Abstract

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.

Highlights

Tracking odours to their source is a complex task that depends upon the cognitive reconstruction of spatio-temporal odour gradients in the environment and is sensitive to locomotor speed [1,2,3,4]
We considered whether bats might use odour plumes to narrow down the general location of S+ to correct or adjacent platforms
These results suggest that bats were unlikely to be mapping odour plumes to locate the odour source

Summary

Flying bats use serial sampling to locate odour sources

Olfactory tracking generally sacrifices speed for sensitivity, but some fastmoving animals appear surprisingly efficient at foraging by smell. 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. 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

Introduction

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Conclusion