Social transmission of novel foraging behavior in bats: frog calls and their referents. Page, R. A & Ryan, M. J Curr Biol, 16(12):1201-5, 2006. doi abstract bibtex The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, uses prey-emitted acoustic cues (frog calls) to assess prey palatability . Previous experiments show that wild T. cirrhosus brought into the laboratory are flexible in their ability to reverse the associations they form between prey cues and prey quality . Here we asked how this flexibility can be achieved in nature. We quantified the rate at which bats learned to associate the calls of a poisonous toad species with palatable prey by placing bats in three groups: (a) social learning, in which a bat inexperienced with the novel association was allowed to observe an experienced bat; (b) social facilitation, in which two inexperienced bats were presented with the experimental task together; and (c) trial-and-error, in which a single inexperienced bat was presented with the experimental task alone. In the social-learning group, bats rapidly acquired the novel association in an average of 5.3 trials. In the social-facilitation and trial-and-error groups, most bats did not approach the call of the poisonous species after 100 trials. Thus, once acquired, novel associations between prey cue and prey quality could spread rapidly through the bat population by cultural transmission. This is the first case to document predator social learning of an acoustic prey cue.
@Article{Page2006,
author = {Rachel A Page and Michael J Ryan},
journal = {Curr Biol},
title = {Social transmission of novel foraging behavior in bats: frog calls and their referents.},
year = {2006},
number = {12},
pages = {1201-5},
volume = {16},
abstract = {The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, uses prey-emitted acoustic
cues (frog calls) to assess prey palatability . Previous experiments
show that wild T. cirrhosus brought into the laboratory are flexible
in their ability to reverse the associations they form between prey
cues and prey quality . Here we asked how this flexibility can be
achieved in nature. We quantified the rate at which bats learned
to associate the calls of a poisonous toad species with palatable
prey by placing bats in three groups: (a) social learning, in which
a bat inexperienced with the novel association was allowed to observe
an experienced bat; (b) social facilitation, in which two inexperienced
bats were presented with the experimental task together; and (c)
trial-and-error, in which a single inexperienced bat was presented
with the experimental task alone. In the social-learning group, bats
rapidly acquired the novel association in an average of 5.3 trials.
In the social-facilitation and trial-and-error groups, most bats
did not approach the call of the poisonous species after 100 trials.
Thus, once acquired, novel associations between prey cue and prey
quality could spread rapidly through the bat population by cultural
transmission. This is the first case to document predator social
learning of an acoustic prey cue.},
doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2006.04.038},
keywords = {16782010},
}
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{"_id":"jhWfkr6EpZEY5Hcue","bibbaseid":"page-ryan-socialtransmissionofnovelforagingbehaviorinbatsfrogcallsandtheirreferents-2006","author_short":["Page, R. A","Ryan, M. J"],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"article","type":"article","author":[{"firstnames":["Rachel","A"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Page"],"suffixes":[]},{"firstnames":["Michael","J"],"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Ryan"],"suffixes":[]}],"journal":"Curr Biol","title":"Social transmission of novel foraging behavior in bats: frog calls and their referents.","year":"2006","number":"12","pages":"1201-5","volume":"16","abstract":"The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, uses prey-emitted acoustic cues (frog calls) to assess prey palatability . Previous experiments show that wild T. cirrhosus brought into the laboratory are flexible in their ability to reverse the associations they form between prey cues and prey quality . Here we asked how this flexibility can be achieved in nature. We quantified the rate at which bats learned to associate the calls of a poisonous toad species with palatable prey by placing bats in three groups: (a) social learning, in which a bat inexperienced with the novel association was allowed to observe an experienced bat; (b) social facilitation, in which two inexperienced bats were presented with the experimental task together; and (c) trial-and-error, in which a single inexperienced bat was presented with the experimental task alone. In the social-learning group, bats rapidly acquired the novel association in an average of 5.3 trials. In the social-facilitation and trial-and-error groups, most bats did not approach the call of the poisonous species after 100 trials. Thus, once acquired, novel associations between prey cue and prey quality could spread rapidly through the bat population by cultural transmission. This is the first case to document predator social learning of an acoustic prey cue.","doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2006.04.038","keywords":"16782010","bibtex":"@Article{Page2006,\n author = {Rachel A Page and Michael J Ryan},\n journal = {Curr Biol},\n title = {Social transmission of novel foraging behavior in bats: frog calls and their referents.},\n year = {2006},\n number = {12},\n pages = {1201-5},\n volume = {16},\n abstract = {The fringe-lipped bat, Trachops cirrhosus, uses prey-emitted acoustic\n\tcues (frog calls) to assess prey palatability . Previous experiments\n\tshow that wild T. cirrhosus brought into the laboratory are flexible\n\tin their ability to reverse the associations they form between prey\n\tcues and prey quality . Here we asked how this flexibility can be\n\tachieved in nature. We quantified the rate at which bats learned\n\tto associate the calls of a poisonous toad species with palatable\n\tprey by placing bats in three groups: (a) social learning, in which\n\ta bat inexperienced with the novel association was allowed to observe\n\tan experienced bat; (b) social facilitation, in which two inexperienced\n\tbats were presented with the experimental task together; and (c)\n\ttrial-and-error, in which a single inexperienced bat was presented\n\twith the experimental task alone. In the social-learning group, bats\n\trapidly acquired the novel association in an average of 5.3 trials.\n\tIn the social-facilitation and trial-and-error groups, most bats\n\tdid not approach the call of the poisonous species after 100 trials.\n\tThus, once acquired, novel associations between prey cue and prey\n\tquality could spread rapidly through the bat population by cultural\n\ttransmission. This is the first case to document predator social\n\tlearning of an acoustic prey cue.},\n doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2006.04.038},\n keywords = {16782010},\n}\n\n","author_short":["Page, R. A","Ryan, M. J"],"key":"Page2006","id":"Page2006","bibbaseid":"page-ryan-socialtransmissionofnovelforagingbehaviorinbatsfrogcallsandtheirreferents-2006","role":"author","urls":{},"keyword":["16782010"],"metadata":{"authorlinks":{}}},"bibtype":"article","biburl":"https://endress.org/publications/ansgar.bib","dataSources":["xPGxHAeh3vZpx4yyE","TXa55dQbNoWnaGmMq"],"keywords":["16782010"],"search_terms":["social","transmission","novel","foraging","behavior","bats","frog","calls","referents","page","ryan"],"title":"Social transmission of novel foraging behavior in bats: frog calls and their referents.","year":2006}