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The bat is a useful vampire. How bats talk How to get rid of bats

She lives in Australia. It feeds on fruits. The best time spends days, hanging upside down on a tree branch. At night he goes in search of food. In a word, she leads the very lifestyle that is supposed to be her as a bat.

Scientists also know that the gray-headed flying fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), as they call it, is by no means silent. But even if the basic sounds of the language of bats are known, their translation still presents some difficulties. One thing is certain: vocabulary in bats, it is sufficient. "Chip", "black-black", "bzzz" and so on and so forth - only 22 words. For example, trying to understand how monkeys talk, scientists have counted only 17 sounds.

As for the syntax of the bats language, it is minimized, and mice are explained in an extremely laconic and extremely precise form. They generally do not speak out of place, each of the sounds that bats emit has its own meaning and is associated with a certain situation of their being.

A professor at the University of Melbourne, John Nelson, has been observing the customs of bats for a long time, trying to understand how bats communicate. After analyzing the recorded sounds, he divided them into four groups, each of which related to some one aspect of their life.

The first group of sounds covers the relationship between mother and baby. Bat gives birth to one single cub once a year. Newborn bats already know how to "speak" their own special, childish language. As soon as the mother moves away from him, a very short, thin squeak is heard. And after a few weeks, as soon as the baby feels more confident, he attracts the mother's attention with a longer modulated cry. This is something like joyful chirping, and sometimes under the mood and sobbing. When the mother finally returns, he sighs with relief and makes a funny short sound, as if swallowing a sip of water.

About a month, the babies are already patiently waiting for the return of the parent, who went to the nearest fruit trees. She warns her offspring of her return with a fast tremolo, and the baby answers her with a whole series of short, thin cries.

Bats show a warlike instinct very early on. The cub begins to utter screams designed to intimidate its neighbors. Already in a month, when he is worried about something, he makes a loud exclamation, similar to the one with which adults engage in contractions, but of a higher frequency. From time to time, fights occur between adult animals. This happens only when the overcrowding and overcrowding in the colonies creates an atmosphere favorable for an explosion. The second group of words is precisely associated with military operations. These are inflammatory calls and exclamations designed to intimidate the opponent.

Thousands of bats, belonging to the Mexican subspecies of the Brazilian foldlip, living in Texas, sing songs during the flight using the most complex syllable combinations. True, the human ear is not able to assess the vocal abilities and skill of bats, since they communicate at ultrasonic frequencies.

Biologist Michael Smotherman of the University of Texas Agriculture and mechanics tried to study the ways of organizing syllables in songs of bats and to connect their communication skills with certain areas of the brain.

“If we can figure out which parts of the brain of bats are responsible for communication, then we can better understand how exactly generates and organizes complex sequences of communication signals in the human brain, - says the scientist. - And, having understood the work of the human brain, we can offer different ways solving problems for people suffering from speech disorders ”.

In Smotherman's laboratory, the behavioral and physiological aspects of information transfer in bats were investigated. In the first case, seasonal variations and differences in the transmission of information by males and females were studied, and in the second, they tried to localize the areas of the brain that were active during communication.

Brazilian folded lips, when communicating, emit sound vibrations at higher frequencies than those that the human ear can pick up (human perception range 16 - 20,000 Hz). True, people can hear snatches of bats' songs if they sing part of the phrase with a lower voice.

Bats communicate at high frequencies due to their ability to echolocate. They create ultrasonic waves in the frequency range from 40 to 100 kHz and are oriented in space, determining with the help of reflected waves the direction and distance to surrounding objects. The higher the frequency of the sound, the finer details the bats can distinguish and the more accurately they build their flight path.

The study involved 75 individuals of the Brazilian foldlip, living in the laboratory of Smotherman. The specimens under study were not isolated from wildlife, but collected in various buildings such as churches and schools. According to the scientist, these bats are not aggressive at all and, due to their friendly nature, are excellent specimens for research.

The call of the Brazilian folded lip, as it turned out, includes 15 to 20 syllables.

Each male sings his own song when courting. Although the "melodies" of courtship songs all sound approximately the same, the performers compose individual appeals, combining different syllables. In addition to songs directed to members of the opposite sex, bats use complex voice messages to identify each other, as well as to indicate social status, determination of territorial boundaries, in raising offspring and in countering individuals that invaded someone else's territory.

“No other mammal, apart from humans, has the ability to communicate using such complex vocal sequences,” says Smotherman.

Songs of bats are like songs of birds. Over many years of research, scientists have been able to identify the parts of the bird's brain responsible for singing, but, according to experts, the brain of birds is very different from the brain of mammals, and therefore it is rather difficult to use knowledge about the features of voice communication in birds to understand the features of human speech.

Mammalian brains are roughly the same, and bats have many of the same structures that are found in the human brain. Therefore, conclusions about the features of voice communication in humans may well be drawn from the study of vocal messages sent by bats.

“The vocal center, responsible for organizing complex syllable sequences, is slightly higher in bats, and we have not yet been able to determine exactly where it is located,” says Smotherman. "Currently, we use the molecular method to determine the areas of the brain that are active during singing."

In the future, scientists hope to apply their data to solving problems associated with speech disorders. According to the scientist, the idea that human speech is unique feature, severely limits research in this area. “Compared to the achievements of other areas of neuroscience, we are lagging at the end, because we have not yet fully understood the fundamental issues of the functioning of voice communications in humans,” complains Smotherman.

Although bats are perfectly oriented in space with the help of ultrasound, this mechanism works perfectly only at short distances. As shown, at long-haul flights bats use the earth's magnetic field thanks to the "built-in magnetic compass".

Everyone knows that bats use echolocation to move. Even five-year-olds know this. As of today, we know this ability is not unique to bats. Dolphins, whales, some birds and even mice also use echolocation. Until recently, however, we had no idea how complex and powerful the voices of bats really are. Scientists have discovered that these unique creatures use their strange vocalizations in all sorts of startling ways. The night is filled with the chirping and squeak of these aerial hunters, and we are just beginning to learn all their secrets. If you think dolphins' clicks and whistles are amazing, then get ready to learn about the true masters of sound.

10. Bats cannot be fooled

It was once believed that bats can only notice moving insects. In fact, some moths freeze when they hear a bat approaching. Apparently, a large-eared leaf-bearing from South America doesn't know about it. Research has shown that they can notice sleeping dragonflies that don't move at all. The big-eared bat “envelops the target in sound” using a constant stream of echolocation. In three seconds, they can determine if their chosen target is edible. Thus, the bat can feast on a sleeping insect, which, apparently, does not hear how it yells at it.

Naturally, scientists initially considered it all impossible. There was no reason to suppose that echolocation of bats is so sensitive that it can detect various forms... They summed it up as follows: "Active perception of silent and motionless prey in dense underbrush vegetation was considered impossible." Nevertheless, the big-eared leaf-borer succeeds.

To further confuse scientists, the big-eared leaf-nose can also distinguish a real dragonfly from an artificial one. Scientists tested bats with real dragonflies and artificial ones, which were made of paper and foil. Despite the fact that initially all bats were interested in fakes, none of them bit an artificial dragonfly. These bats can not only determine the shape of an object using echolocation, but also hear the difference in the material from which the object is made.

9. Bats locate plants using echolocation

Photo: Hans Hillewaert

A huge number of bats feed exclusively on fruits, but they fly out in search of food only at night. So how do they find food in the dark? Scientists initially believed that they find their target with their nose. This is because it would be quite difficult to sort out the different forms of plants in dense foliage using echolocation alone. In theory, everything would be as if in a fog.

Of course, it is quite possible that bats see insects on trees, but no one would have thought that these winged rodents could use sound to determine the type of plant (by the way, bats are not rodents). However, bats from the leaf-nosed subfamily known as Glossophagine can do just that. They find their favorite plants with just one sound. Scientists have no idea how they accomplish this feat. "The echoes produced by plants are very complex signals bouncing off the many leaves of this plant." In other words, it's incredibly difficult. However, these bats have no problem using this method. They locate flowers and fruits without any problem. In some plants, even the leaves are shaped like satellite dishes to attract bats. Once again, bats prove that there is still a lot to learn about sound.

8. High frequency

The ultrasonic chirp of a bat can be quite high. A person hears sounds in the range of 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz, which is pretty good. For example, the best soprano singer can only achieve a note at approximately 1.76 kilohertz. Most bats can twitter in the 12 to 160 kilohertz range, which is comparable to dolphins.

The brightly decorated smooth-nosed nose emits the highest-frequency sound of any animal in the world. Their range starts at 235 kilohertz, which is much higher than the frequency that humans can hear, and ends at around 250 kilohertz. This small furry mammal can make sounds 120 times higher than the world's best singer. Why do they need such powerful audio equipment? Scientists believe that these high frequencies "significantly concentrate the sonar of this species of bats and reduce its range." In the dense jungle where these bats live, such echolocation can give them the advantage of detecting insects among all the rustling of leaves and branches. This species can focus its echolocation like no other species can.

7. Superplugs

Pointed ears of bats never get enough attention. Everyone is only interested in the sound itself, not the receiver. Therefore, the engineering department Polytechnic University Virginia Tech has finally studied the ears of bats. Initially, no one believed what they found. In one tenth of a second (100 milliseconds), one of these bats can "significantly reshape its ear so that it picks up different sound frequencies." How fast is it? It takes a human three times longer to blink than a horseshoe bat to reshape its ear to tune in to specific echoes. ”

The ears of bats are supernatural. Not only can they move their ears at lightning fast speeds, but they can also “handle overlapping echoes coming in just 2 millionths of a second apart. They can also distinguish objects that are only 0.3 millimeters apart. " To make it easier for you to imagine, the width of a human hair is 0.3 millimeters. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that naval forces are studying bats. Their biological sonar is much any better technology invented by man.

6. Bats recognize their friends

Like humans, bats have best friends with whom they love to communicate. Every day, as hundreds of bats in the colony are getting ready for bed, they are assigned to the same social groups over and over again. How do they find each other in such a huge crowd? By screaming, of course.

Researchers have found that bats can recognize the individual calls of their representatives. social group... Each bat has a "distinct vocalization that has a distinct acoustic image." It sounds like bats have their own names. These unique, personalized acoustic images are considered greetings. When friends meet, they sniff each other's armpits - after all, nothing strengthens a friendship like breathing in the armpits of bats.

Another way bats transmit individual signals is by hunting for food. When multiple bats hunt in the same area, they emit a prey signal that others hear. The purpose of this signal is a kind of statement: "Hey, this beetle is mine!". Surprisingly, these screams when finding food are also unique to each individual, so when one bat from the whole flock screams “Mine!”, All the other bats in the colony know who found their food.

5. Telephone system

Colonies of Madagascar suckers are nomadic and constantly move from place to place to avoid predators. They sleep in rolled leaves of heliconia and calathea, each of which can accommodate several small bats. So how do these scurrying fluffy balls communicate with the rest of the colony if they spread throughout the forest? They use a natural speakerphone system to talk to their friends.

Funnels made of leaves help to amplify the screams of bats inside by as much as two decibels. Leaves are also great at channeling sound. Research shows that bats that were already in their leaf shawls made a special sound to help their friends find them. The bats outside screamed back, playing a kind of Marco Polo game until they found their kind. They usually had no problem finding the right roost.

The leaves work even better at amplifying the sound of incoming screams, increasing their volume by as much as 10 decibels. It's like living inside a megaphone.

4. Noisy wings

Not all bats are highly vocalized. In fact, most bats do not have the ability to create the same clicks and squeaks that most other bats use for echolocation. However, this does not mean that they cannot move around the area at night. Recently, it has been discovered that many species of fruit bats can navigate space using the flapping sounds they make with their wings. In fact, the researchers are so overwhelmed by this discovery that they have conducted many tests just to make sure that these sounds do not come from the mouths of these bats. They even went as far as to seal the mouths of bats and inject anesthetic into their tongues. These mice, with their mouths sealed with tape and lidocaine injected into their tongues, were subjected to such torture only so that scientists could be 100 percent sure that the bats did not trick them using their mouths.

So how do these bats use their wings to create the sounds they use for echolocation? Believe it or not, no one has figured it out yet. Flying and flapping at the same time is a secret these intelligent mammals don't want to give away. However, this is the first discovery of the use of non-voice sounds for navigation and scientists are very happy about it.

3. Vision in a whisper

Photo: Ryan Somma

Based on the fact that bats find their prey using echolocation, some animals, such as moths, have developed the ability to detect the echolocation of bats. This is a prime example of the classic evolutionary battle between predator and prey. The predator develops a weapon, its potential prey finds a way to counteract it. Many moths fall to the ground and are stationary when they hear a bat approaching.

The shrew-like, long-tongued vampire has found a way to bypass the sensitive hearing of moths. Scientists were surprised to find that these bats ate almost exclusively on moths, which should have heard them approaching. So how do they catch their prey? The shrew-like long-tongued vampire uses a quieter form of echolocation that moths cannot detect. Instead of echolocation, they use "whispering". They use the equivalent of bat stealth to catch unsuspecting moths. A study of another whispering bat, called the European wide-eyed or snub-nosed long-eared bat, has shown that the vocalization of this bat species is 100 times quieter than that of other species.

2. The fastest mouth of all

There are ordinary, unremarkable muscles, but there are also those that can only be described as super muscles. Rattlesnakes possess extreme tail muscles that allow them to rattle the tip of their tail at incredible speed. The puffer bladder is the fastest twitching muscle of all vertebrates. If we talk about mammals, then there is no faster muscle than the pharynx of a bat. It can contract at a speed of 200 times per minute. That's 100 times faster than you can blink. With each contraction, a sound is produced.

Scientists wondered what the upper limit of a bat sonar is. Based on the fact that the echo returns to the bat in just one millisecond, their screams begin to overlap each other at a speed of 400 echoes per minute. Studies have shown that they can hear up to 400 echoes per second, so only the larynx stops them.

In theory, it is quite possible that there are those who are capable of breaking this record. None of known to science mammals do not have muscles that can move that fast. The reason they can perform these amazing sonic feats is because they actually have more mitochondria (body batteries) as well as calcium-carrying proteins. This gives them more power and allows their muscles to contract much more often. Their muscles are literally super charged.

1. Bats are fishing

Some bats hunt fish. This seems completely ridiculous, since echolocation does not travel through water. It bounces off it like a ball hitting a wall. So how do fish-eating bats do this? Their echolocation is so sensitive that they can detect ripples on the surface of the water, which reveal fish swimming right at the surface of the water. The bat doesn't actually see the fish. Their echolocation never reaches the prey itself. They find fish swimming near the surface of the water by listening to the splash of water on the surface using sound. This is an amazing ability.

It turns out that some bats use the same technique to catch frogs. If a frog sitting in water sees a bat, it freezes. But she is given out by ripples spreading in water from her body. Another interesting fact about bats and water is that from birth they are programmed to think that any acoustically smooth surface is water and they descend to drink. Apparently, if you put a large, smooth plate in the middle of the jungle, young bats will dive into it facedown in an attempt to quench their thirst. Therefore, on the one hand, the echolocation of bats is so sensitive that they can read the surface of the lake like a book. On the other hand, young bats cannot tell the difference between a tray and a puddle.

Signs and beliefs associated with bats

Signs and beliefs associated with bats.

I am One of the nocturnal, bats of an ancient kind.

An unknown mouse hanging upside down on a tree.

I may be a bird of some rare breed

From the region of the ultra, from the echo city of the echo of the hero?

No, I'm not a vampire, this is in the past ... a maggot for dinner,

(I'm on a diet), butterflies are a lean paste,

Fruit pulp - a supply of vitamins, colds ...

Kh ..., an eternal draft in these European caves! ... Over the years

The understanding came that I am not a single butterfly,

I send a request to other worlds - ultrasound ...

But the echo is silent, the Great Mouse does not heed.

Where to attach the membranes of winged hands ???

***

If bats emerge from their burrows immediately after sunset and frolic in the sky, this portends a clear and warm weather.

An old Scottish belief states that if a bat flies up and falls to the ground again, then the witch's hour has come when witches have power over all human beings, deprived of special protection. Of all the inhabitants of Britain, only Scots have seen some kind of connection between bats and humans. ...

Here is another similar belief.

The modern inhabitants of Tendo (Gold Coast) believe that the flocks of bats that leave the island every evening and rush to the mouth of the river are the souls of the dead who stay on the sacred island and every evening must visit the home of the kind fetish Tano, who lives in the river of the same name. And the Wotjobaluk tribe in southeastern Australia believes that the life of a bat is connected with human life, and if a bat is killed, then human life will be shortened.

A similar superstition in Scotland and the north of England was associated with hares. It was believed that witches can turn into hares, and if a hare is wounded or killed, then the witch will also be found killed or wounded.

Thus, many witches and sorcerers were caught in Britain. In Russia, “superstitious people carried [bats] ... dried in their bosoms, for health or happiness. in a fever, children. " Eastern Siberia after killing a bat, "hang it on a string from the ceiling and dry long time; thereafter, it is pounded into powder, which is mixed with horse feed. Prevents spoilage. "Bats were called bats. It is believed that" bats are played - to the bucket.

The bat flies into the house - to trouble.

Encounters with a bat are the scariest signs - there is nothing worse than meeting these mice.

If the bat screams or squeaks during the flight, expect failure.

If a person is attacked by a bat, death is on the way.

To see a bat that flaps its wings is a terrible disease.

In the Isle of Man and in areas along the border with Wales, it was rumored that witches transform into bats and enter homes in that form. EM Lazer tells the story of a man from Whibley Marsh who saw "something like a bat" fly into his room. He hit her with a handkerchief, but when he began looking for the body, he found nothing. Subsequently, he said that on this basis he understood that it was a witch from among those who then lived in the area, because a real bat would have died from such a blow for sure. A Scottish belief is recorded that when a bat soars up in flight and then drops sharply to the ground, this means that the hour has come for witches - a time when they have power over people who have no special protection against them.

Despite this connection with witches, the Maine population considers it a very good omen if a bat falls on a person. Many women outside the island will question this due to the general belief that if a bat flies or falls on a woman's head, it will inevitably get tangled in her hair and will not get out until it is cut off. But this, too, seems to be nothing more than superstition, not based on facts. Countryman (Spring 1960) reports an experiment in 1959 by the Earl of Cranbrook, with the kind help of three young women, who allowed him to throw a bat in his hair. Used bats of four different types, and in all cases this creature managed to get rid of without difficulty, without causing any disorder in the hair.

In Oxfordshire, it is considered a portent of death when a bat flies around the house three times. If bats appear in the early evening and fly around, as if playing, this is good weather.