Issue date: 9/16/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy Photo Mexican free-tailed bats are being researched for their rare mating songs. [Click to enlarge]

Mexican free-tailed bats, like those under the Kyle Field bleachers, have been found to be one of the rare mammals that have structured communication ¬- mating songs that follow syntax, much like language follows rules of grammar.

Researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin combined findings to publish a paper in the "PloS ONE," an online journal of the Public Library of Science.

"We've known for awhile that they sang, but we just published the first full paper on their songs - how they're organized; they're extremely structured. We always put a noun before a verb - it's the same idea," said Kirsten Bohn, A&M postdoctoral researcher, specializing in animal communication and behavior. "Most mammals don't make really intricate and structured vocalizations; [Mexican free-tailed bats] sound like a song - there's a rhythm to them."

Bats from Kyle Field and under the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin were studied.

"[Kyle Field] is so big that it has tremendous thermal properties," said Texas A&M assistant biology professor Michael Smotherman, "so it stays pretty warm at night and cool during the day."

Researchers of the study had known since 2003 that Mexican free-tailed bats sang, but only recently were able to hear the syllables of the songs.

"It's very high frequency, so it wasn't until we had technology to record high frequency were we able to record and listen to the songs," Bohn said. "We looked at over 400 songs from 35 different bats."

The mating songs also vary from bat to bat, Bohn said.

"Mammals often have one specific song and make that same call over and over," Bohn said. "The bats don't just make the same song over and over again - there's a lot of variety within the same bat, one bat will make a lot of different songs."

Researchers were able to get a better understanding of the songs by comparing them to communication of birds, whales and primates.

Continued...

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