Group size, survival and surprisingly short lifespan in socially foraging bats

Producers and scroungers: feeding-type composition changes with group size in a socially foraging spider.

In groups of socially foraging animals, feeding behaviour may change with group size in response to varying cost-benefit trade-offs. Numerous studies have described group-size effects on group-average feeding behaviour, particularly emphasizing an increase in scrounging incidence for larger groups, where individuals (scroungers) feed from the food sources others (producers) discovered. However,...

Erratum Foraging bats avoid noise

Are migratory behaviours of bats socially transmitted?

To migrate, animals rely on endogenous, genetically inherited programmes, or socially transmitted information about routes and behaviours, or a combination of the two. In long-lived animals with extended parental care, as in bats, migration tends to be socially transmitted rather than endogenous. For a young bat to learn migration via social transmission, they would need to follow an experience...

Sensory Ecology: Noise Annoys Foraging Bats

Traffic noise reduces foraging time and effort in greater mouse-eared bats, presumably by masking rustling sounds made by moving arthropods. Anthropogenic noise is becoming a major concern in conservation biology.

Communication and Social Influences on Foraging in Bats

Title of Document: COMMUNICATION AND SOCIAL INFLUENCES ON FORAGING IN BATS Genevieve Spanjer Wright, Doctor of Philosophy, 2012 Directed By: Professor Gerald S. Wilkinson Department of Biology Professor Cynthia F. Moss Department of Psychology Using social information can be an efficient way to respond to changing situations or to learn skills. Other benefits of foraging in a group, such as soc...