Isolation calls from twin siblings are similar in the Asian parti-coloured bat, Vespertilio sinensis

ABSTRACT

Many bat pups emit isolation calls with low-frequency components that facilitate maternal recognition. Most previous studies have noted that isolation calls generally have unique individual identity, but few studies have attempted to assess the potential impact of genetic factors on individual characteristics of isolation calls. The Asian parti-coloured bat is one of the few bat species that typically produce twins. Therefore, they represent a model system for exploring the influence of genetic factors on bat pup isolation call characteristics. In this paper, we recorded isolation calls from 16 pups at three days of age in the laboratory, conducted principal component analysis (PCA) on 13 acoustic parameters of isolation calls, and then performed discriminant function analysis (DFA). The DFA of acoustic parameters revealed that these calls carry information about individual identity. These results may indicate that there is acoustically mediated mother–infant recognition. Further analysis showed that twin siblings have more obvious call similarities than non-twins, which may be caused by genetic factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Twins
• isolation calls
• Vespertilio sinensis
• individual signature

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31570390, 31770403, 31670390) and Jilin Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 20190201269JC). We thank Zhongwei Yin for their invaluable field assistance. We thank Elizabeth Kelly and Mallory Eckstut, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Authors’ contributions

Yu Li, Deyi Sun, and Xiao Tan collected the data. Yu Li and Longru Jin analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. Tingting Chi, Ying Liu, and Jiang Feng amended the manuscript. All authors agree to be held accountable for the content of the manuscript and approve the final version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics

All experimental procedures conformed to the ABS/ASAB Guidelines for the Treatment of Animals in Behavioural Research.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [31570390, 31770403, 31670390] and Jilin Provincial Natural Science Foundation [20190201269JC].