According to new atlas, rat eared bats are prey for owls, but owls themselves may avoid bumblebees for fear of being stung Bats use this fact to stop owls by buzzing like bumblebees, a new study suggests The study was led by Danilo Russo, an associate professor at the second Federal University of Naples, Italy.
A few years ago, he noticed that when he dealt with rat eared bats caught in the fog net, those bats produced a bumblebee like buzz. At the time, Russo and colleagues were unsure of the purpose of the behavior. They wondered if it might be a way to send a warning to other bats in the community, although they also suspected it might be a way to scare away predators.
Recently, the team tested the latter theory with 16 adult owls in captivity. These owls include eight barn owls and eight grey owls - four of each species are captured only in the wild, while the other four are raised in captivity.
In a laboratory environment, the researchers played back four recordings to the owl. These recordings include buzzing sounds from rat eared bats, bees and wasps, as well as non buzzing sounds from bats.
It has been observed that owls tend to stay away from the speakers when all the buzzing sounds are emitted, but in the case of non buzzing, they will approach. This is particularly evident in wild owls, which have more experience in killing bats and being stung by bumblebees.
According to Russo, this is the first known case of mammals using acoustic Bates mimicry, in which a harmless species avoids predators by imitating the sound of a more dangerous species.
"It's a bit surprising that owls represent evolutionary pressure to shape the sound behavior of bats in response to the unpleasant experiences of owls and stinging insects. This is just one of a large number of examples of the beauty of the evolutionary process," he said
A paper on the study was recently published in contemporary biology00486-9? utm_ Media = home page).