エコーロケーションをするコウモリはナビゲーションのために音響認知地図を使う(Echolocating bats use an acoustic cognitive map for navigation)

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2024-10-28 マックス・プランク研究所

エコーロケーションをするコウモリはナビゲーションのために音響認知地図を使う(Echolocating bats use an acoustic cognitive map for navigation)
A Kuhl’s pipistrelle drinks water during its nightly foraging flights © Jens Rydell

エコーロケーションを使うコウモリ、特にクールコウモリ(Kuhl’s pipistrelle)は、音響的な地図を用いて数キロメートル規模でのナビゲーションが可能であることが明らかになりました。イスラエルでの実験では、コウモリが視覚や嗅覚を頼らずエコーロケーションだけで巣に戻る様子が観察されました。環境の音響的な特徴をランドマークとして活用し、特に反射エコーが豊富な場所を通ることで、場所を特定して移動することが確認されました。

<関連情報>

音響認知マップを用いたエコーロコケーションを行うコウモリのナビゲーション Acoustic cognitive map–based navigation in echolocating bats

Aya Goldshtein, Xing Chen, Eran Amichai, Arjan Boonman, […], and Yossi Yovel
Science  Published:31 Oct 2024
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adn6269

Editor’s summary

Insectivorous bats are well known to use echolocation to catch prey and navigate around obstacles. It has also been shown that more visually guided fruit bats have spatial cognitive maps of their environment. Goldshtein et al. placed minuscule GPS trackers on tiny pipistrelle bats in conjunction with temporary blocks of vision and olfaction. The authors found that the bats could still navigate across kilometer scales using only echolocation. Thus, echolocation may not only allow for local navigation, but might also translate into an acoustic cognitive map of the environment that the animals can use to navigate over long distances. —Sacha Vignieri

Abstract

Bats are known for their ability to use echolocation for obstacle avoidance and orientation. However, the extent to which bats utilize their highly local and directional echolocation for kilometer-scale navigation is unknown. In this study, we translocated wild Kuhl’s pipistrelle bats and tracked their homing abilities while manipulating their visual, magnetic, and olfactory sensing and accurately tracked them using a new reverse GPS system. We show that bats can identify their location after translocation and conduct several-kilometer map-based navigation using solely echolocation. This proposition was further supported by a large-scale echolocation model disclosing how bats use environmental acoustic information to perform acoustic cognitive map–based navigation. We also demonstrate that navigation is improved when using both echolocation and vision.

生物環境工学
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