Probabilistic strategies for dynamic coordination of biosonar emissions in social groups

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Echolocating bats are social animals and must be able to use their biosonar capabilities in a wide range of social contexts. Bats roosting or flying in groups routinely adapt their pulse emissions to accommodate sharing the acoustic space with potentially many bats. In this regard, echolocation may be bound by the same rules and constraints governing social communication. Bats can alter pulse acoustics, temporal patterns, projections patterns, and locomotor trajectories to minimize acoustic interference across individuals. Here, we present evidence that the highly gregarious free-tailed bat, Tadarida brasiliensis, primarily relies upon probabilistic strategies for mitigating acoustic interference rather than trying to predict or extract information from the pulses of other bats. When free-tailed bats hear the pulses of another bat they shift the timing of subsequent pulse emissions following a randomized back-off algorithm similar to those that have evolved in artificial wireless communications systems. I...