Science And Sciencibility
where each text is a hypertext link
Thursday, 12 May 2022
Bats buzz like hornets to scare off owl predators
Some bats can imitate the sound of buzzing hornets to scare off owls — the first documented case of a mammal mimicking an insect to deter predators. Researchers compared the sound structure of buzzing by the European hornet (
Vespa crabro
) to that of the distress call of greater mouse-eared bats (
Myotis myotis
). At most frequencies, the two sounds were not dramatically similar, but they were when the bat’s call was stripped down to include only frequencies that owls can hear.
Newer Post
Older Post
Home