Echolocating bats use future-target information for optimal foraging

When seeing or listening to an object, we aim our attention toward it. While capturing prey, many animal species focus their visual or acoustic attention toward the prey. However, for multiple prey items, the direction and timing of attention for effective foraging remain unknown. In this study, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2016-04, Vol.113 (17), p.4848-4852
Main Authors: Fujioka, Emyo, Aihara, Ikkyu, Sumiya, Miwa, Aihara, Kazuyuki, Hiryu, Shizuko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Anticipation, Psychological
Attention
Bats
Biological Sciences
Chiroptera - physiology
Chiroptera - psychology
Computer Simulation
Decision making
Echolocation
Flight, Animal - physiology
Insects
Mathematical models
Models, Biological
Predatory Behavior - physiology
Simulation
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Summary:When seeing or listening to an object, we aim our attention toward it. While capturing prey, many animal species focus their visual or acoustic attention toward the prey. However, for multiple prey items, the direction and timing of attention for effective foraging remain unknown. In this study, we adopted both experimental and mathematical methodology with microphone-array measurements and mathematical modeling analysis to quantify the attention of echolocating bats that were repeatedly capturing airborne insects in the field. Here we show that bats select rational flight paths to consecutively capture multiple prey items. Microphone-array measurements showed that bats direct their sonar attention not only to the immediate prey but also to the next prey. In addition, we found that a bat’s attention in terms of its flight also aims toward the next prey even when approaching the immediate prey. Numerical simulations revealed a possibility that bats shift their flight attention to control suitable flight paths for consecutive capture. When a bat only aims its flight attention toward its immediate prey, it rarely succeeds in capturing the next prey. These findings indicate that bats gain increased benefit by distributing their attention among multiple targets and planning the future flight path based on additional information of the next prey. These experimental and mathematical studies allowed us to observe the process of decision making by bats during their natural flight dynamics.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1515091113