Code switching vampire bats mimic their closest friends

Vampire bats may be the only mammals that feed exclusively on blood but they are known for their strong social ties. New research reveals they change the way they talk depending on their relationships. Researchers placed female common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) in cages with bats they had met before as well as complete strangers. They monitored the bats’ ultrasonic vocalizations as they got to know each other over a few years. Through analyzing nearly 700,000 calls made by 95 bats, the researchers found that those in new social groups made up of unfamiliar bats changed their calls to match those of the bats around them. The researchers also found that more closely-tied individuals—those who shared blood meals with each other when one couldn’t leave the roost—had more similar calls. “This means females are learning their calls by listening to each other as they interact, rather than simply making the sounds they’re genetically predisposed to make,” said co-author Grace Smith-Vidaurre, a behavioral ecologist at Michigan State University. The bats could be cuing into the sounds they hear most often and producing a regional “accent” that helps them differentiate one another or build social bonds. The researchers are now looking into whether bats repeatedly use specific calls to address certain friends, which could be a form of names.

Read more at Nautilus.