Population‐level lateralization of boxing displays enhances fighting success in male Great Himalayan leaf‐nosed bats

Behavioral lateralization with left‐ and right‐hand use is common in the Animal Kingdom and can be advantageous for social species. The existence of a preferential use of the hands during agonistic interactions has been described for a number of invertebrate and vertebrate species. Bats compose the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and evolution 2023-03, Vol.13 (3), p.e9879-n/a
Main Authors: Zhang, Chunmian, Lucas, Jeffrey R., Feng, Jiang, Jiang, Tinglei, Sun, Congnan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aggressive display
Agonistic behavior
Bats
Behavioral lateralization
Behavioural Ecology
Bias
boxing
Competition
Conflict resolution
Datasets
Displays
Fighting
Foraging behavior
Handedness
Leaves
Macrotus
Males
Mammals
Populations
Success
Vertebrates
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Summary:Behavioral lateralization with left‐ and right‐hand use is common in the Animal Kingdom and can be advantageous for social species. The existence of a preferential use of the hands during agonistic interactions has been described for a number of invertebrate and vertebrate species. Bats compose the second largest order of mammals. They not only use their forelimbs for flight but also agonistic interactions. However, whether bat species show a population‐level lateralized aggressive display has largely been unexplored. Here, we examine the lateralization of boxing displays during agonistic interactions in male Great Himalayan leaf‐nosed bats, Hipposideros armiger, from three different populations. We found a population‐level lateralization of boxing displays: Males from all three populations show a preferential use of the left forearm to attack opponents. In addition, left‐handed boxers have higher fighting success over right‐handed boxers. This study expands our knowledge of the handedness of bats and highlights the role of behavioral lateralization in conflict resolution in nocturnal mammals. Male Great Himalayan leaf‐nosed bats show a population‐level lateralized aggressive display, which performs with a left forearm bias when using forearms for fighting, and left‐handed boxers won more contests than right‐handed boxers. This is the first experimental evidence of lateralization of aggressive displays in a bat species.
ISSN:2045-7758
2045-7758
DOI:10.1002/ece3.9879