Sex-Specific Responses to Social Calls Shape Foraging Decisions in a Nectar-Feeding Bat.
4 affiliations
- 1Museum Für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Berlin, Germany.
- 2Evolutionary Ethology, Institute for Biology, Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
- 3Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panama.
- 4Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Evolution (AnEcoEvo), Dipartimento di Agraria, Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Portici (Napoli), Italy.
Abstract
Foraging in social animals involves balancing the benefits of social information against the costs of competition. In nectarivorous bats, social vocalizations are commonly produced at feeding sites, yet it remains unclear whether males and females respond differently to such signals. We investigated this by testing how alert calls linked to aggressive interactions and benign social calls influence foraging choices in bats (Glossophaga mutica handleyi). Bats changed their flower choices in response to playbacks, revealing marked sex differences. Males avoided flowers paired with alert calls, whereas females preferred them. Conversely, males showed no response to benign calls, whereas females were consistently drawn to flowers paired with social calls regardless of call type. Acoustic analyses revealed no differences between male and female alert calls, suggesting that these sex-specific responses stem from receiver behavior rather than signal design. Furthermore, only dominant males approached flowers associated with alert calls, suggesting that competitive ability influences responses to conflict-related signals. Overall, these results demonstrate that the same social signal can trigger different behavioral strategies in male and female bats. Our study underscores the importance of receiver-dependent processes in shaping communication systems and shows that sex-specific responses to social signals can develop without sex-specific variation in signals.
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BibTeX
@article{knornschild2026sexspecific,
title = {{Sex-Specific Responses to Social Calls Shape Foraging Decisions in a Nectar-Feeding Bat.}},
author = {Mirjam Knörnschild and Danilo Russo},
journal = {Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1111/nyas.70427},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42905947},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sex-Specific Responses to Social Calls Shape Foraging Decisions in a Nectar-Feeding Bat.
AU - Mirjam Knörnschild
AU - Danilo Russo
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
DO - 10.1111/nyas.70427
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42905947
AB - Foraging in social animals involves balancing the benefits of social information against the costs of competition. In nectarivorous bats, social vocalizations are commonly produced at feeding sites, yet it remains unclear whether males and females respond differently to such signals. We investigated this by testing how alert calls linked to aggressive interactions and benign social calls influence foraging choices in bats (Glossophaga mutica handleyi). Bats changed their flower choices in response to playbacks, revealing marked sex differences. Males avoided flowers paired with alert calls, whereas females preferred them. Conversely, males showed no response to benign calls, whereas females were consistently drawn to flowers paired with social calls regardless of call type. Acoustic analyses revealed no differences between male and female alert calls, suggesting that these sex-specific responses stem from receiver behavior rather than signal design. Furthermore, only dominant males approached flowers associated with alert calls, suggesting that competitive ability influences responses to conflict-related signals. Overall, these results demonstrate that the same social signal can trigger different behavioral strategies in male and female bats. Our study underscores the importance of receiver-dependent processes in shaping communication systems and shows that sex-specific responses to social signals can develop without sex-specific variation in signals.
SN - 0077-8923
SN - 1749-6632
ER -