SEABCRU » acoustics

Complex geographic variation in calls, morphology and genetic relationships in the Intermediate Horseshoe Bat

Joe Chun-Chia Huang — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 17:35:44 +0000

A complicated chap — Rhinolophus affinis from Malaysia. Photo Tigga Kingston

The Intermediate Horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis) is one of the most common cave species using constant frequency (CF) calls in Southeast Asia. In the past, variations of morphology and echolocation calls within the species have been observed among different geographic populations. However, the patterns of intra-specific variations across its extent and phylogeographic relationships among traits had not been not been fully explored. Cambodian researcher, Mr. Saveng Ith, led research on the geographic variation of R. affinis in mainland Southeast Asia. With morphological data, the researchers validated the two named subspecies in the region and reported a third form from Vietnam and Myanmar. Echolocation calls also show high variation in peak frequency but the divergence cannot be correlated with morphological form nor maternal lineages. The mismatches between the three traits in this study pose further questions on how CF bat species shape their morphology and echolocation.

The findings are published in the latest issue of Zoological Studies by Saveng and his collaborators, including another seven SEABCRU associates.

Original Citation: Saveng Ith, Sara Bumrungsri, Neil M Furey, Paul JJ Bates, Monwadee Wonglapsuwan, Faisal Ali Anwarali Khan, Vu Dinh Thong, Pipat Soisook, Chutamas Satasook and Nikky M Thomas. Taxonomic implications of geographical variation in Rhinolophus affinis (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) in mainland Southeast Asia. Zoological Studies, 54(31): p 1-29.

Do fruit bats orientate using sounds produced by their wings?

Paul Racey — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 21:45:30 +0000

A snappy habit — Eonycteris spelaea (photo T. Kingston)

In 1988, Ed Gould reported wing clapping (also described as the sound of rain drops falling) by Eonycteris spelaea roosting in total darkness in Batu caves near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which ceased when the cave was illuminated. Bats living in a lighter part of the cave produced no sound. Gould painted one wing and showed that wings touched in flight. He also reported a whistling sound associate with wing clapping. However bats with plugged ears did not blunder into obstacles so Gould found it impossible to conclude definitively that wind clapping was a primitive sort of echolocation and he speculated that it may be associated with deceleration.

Arjan Boonman, Sara Bumrungsri and Yossi Yovel have extended Gould’s work to show that E.spelaea and Cynopterus brachyotis use wing clapping to detect and discriminate objects, although it does not allow them to estimate distance . Similar wing-clapping is reported in the bare-backed bat (Dobsonia moluccensis) and in Lucas’s dusky fruit bat (Panthetor lucasii) which also roosts in dark caves (Churchill 2008, T. Kingston pers. comm. respectively). Can any SEABCRU members extend these observations to other species?

Boonman, A., Bumrungsri, S. and Y. Yovel (2014) Nonecholocating fruit bats produce biosonar clicks with their wings. Current Biology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.077

Churchill SK (2008). Australian bats. Allen and Unwin, Sydney

Gould E (1988) Wing-clapping sounds of Eonycteris spelaea (Pteropodidae) in Malaysia. J Mammal 69:378–379

SEABCRU Bat Conservation Research Workshop — Mandalay, Myanmar, August 2014

Tigga Kingston — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 21:29:40 +0000

Last month the SEABCRU was in Mandalay, Myanmar for the second in its series of Network Gap workshop. Prior capacity-building initiatives by two SEABCRU members of the steering committee (Dr Paul Bates of the Harrison Institute, and Dr Tigga Kingston of Texas Tech University) with the Universities of Mandalay and Yangon (1999-2010) established a generation of Myanmar bat researchers, but political isolation and poor internet communication has precluded their integration and collaboration with researchers in other parts of South East Asia. Myanmar was thus identified as a target location for the “Network Gap” series of SEABCRU workshops by the steering committee in 2012, and as the political situation in Myanmar has changed in the last two years, we were able to initiate this workshop.

The workshop was hosted by the University of Mandalay, Myanmar (Professor Mie Mie Sein, Head of Zoology and Sai Sein Oo Lin, Lecturer University of Bhamo), and was conducted in collaboration with the Harrison Institute (Dr Paul Bates). The workshop was a great success, with 40 participants drawn from 18 universities and colleges across Myanmar. The SEABCRU sponsored 30 participants, with the University of Mandalay finding support for an additional 10 young MSc students.

SEABCRU Bat Conservation Research Workshop, Mandalay 2014

We also worked hard to raise the profile of bats in Myanmar, and received substantial media coverage, including articles by MRTV (Myanmar Radio & TV), Skynet, The Mirror (national newspaper – Burmese language), Yadanapon (local newspaper — Burmese language) and New Light of Myanmar (national newspaper – Burmese and English editions)

Aims and Objectives:

The global aim of the workshop was to integrate Myanmar researchers into the SEABCRU network. Participants were faculty of Myanmar universities focusing primarily on bats, and who had existing data to publish. In addition, with support from the University of Mandalay, we had ten young MSc students following, who we hope will continue on in bat research. The specific objectives were to:

i) Develop capacity and curatorial skills to establish a national bat collection, hosted at Mandalay University (Taxonomy Group) – despite 15 years of active research on bats there is no national repository for material, hampering taxonomic research and biodiversity studies.

ii) Provide training on echolocation recording and analysis techniques, and discuss studies that can use acoustic survey and monitoring, and the role of acoustics in taxonomy (Acoustics Group)

iii) Initiate a national survey of Pteropus colonies (Flying Fox Group)

iv) Build faculty capacity to publish their research in international journals (Publishing Group) – although there are c. 50 Myanmar bat researchers, there have been only 10 publications in accessible (international or regional) journals, none of which have Myanmar nationals as the first author.

v) Train Myanmar researchers in the use of Darwin Core Format for biodiversity data management, such that they can contribute to the SEABCRU database and generate data compatible with other international repositories (e.g. GBIF).

The five days went incredibly quickly, but we achieved a lot! The full workshop report is soon to follow, but here is a brief summary by group.

Taxonomic & Curatorial Capacity

Lead: Dr Pipat Soisook. Facilitators: Dr Faisal Anwarali Khan, Bounsavane Douangboubpha, Dr Paul Bates, Dr Ibnu Maryanto, Susan Tsang

Objectives:

develop capacity for a well-curated national collection
develop a taxonomic network between Myanmar and other SE Asian researchers
identify potential projects for joint publications

What we did:

During the workshop, we trained 13 participants (10 professors/lecturers with PhD and 3 MSc students) from 9 universities in Myanmar in the best practice for taxonomic data collection, specifically:

What data need to be collected in the field
How to set up harp traps and mist-net.
How to handle bats and take standard external measurements of the bats.
How to prepare specimens for the collection; e.g. labelling, alcohol, jars.
How to run and manage collection in long term; e.g. specimens and prepare electronic database.
What is a loan policy?

We explained how collection and good data are important for taxonomic research and conservation. Group members also exchanged experience about each other’s museums with Myanmar participants e.g. about the location of the museum, when the museum was established, number of specimens in the museum, and problems or challenges during developing the museum. Each of participants shared the information of current situation about collection/specimens in their own university, in which none of them have or started to have their own collection.

The most important activity of the group during the workshop was to revisit the specimen collection of the Department of Zoology, University of Mandalay. As a group, Tax & Sys member swith the participants have initiated the establishment of the bat specimen collection with a name ‘University of Mandalay Zoological Collection (UMZC)’. The head of the department, Professor Dr Mie Mie Sein and Professor Dr Naw Dolly Wilbur will be in charge of the collection. This collection is expected to be the main taxonomic collection in upper Myanmar. This is a promising start for Myanmar’s bat collection as it comprises at least 50 specimens from 18 bat species, including unreported species of Hipposideros lankadiva and H. pratti.

Another major activity of the group members were by pairing up with the participants to work on their unpublished taxonomic/survey data. We expect that from this activity at least 4 papers with great potential to contribute to the Myanmar’s bat taxonomy will be published soon.

Acoustic Surveys

Lead: Dr Tigga Kingston. Facilitators: Joe Chun-Chia Huang, Dr Neil Furey, Dr Vu Dinh Thong.

Objectives:

to introduce the biology and application of echolocation in studies on bat ecology and taxonomy.
to make participants familiar with different recording techniques, the use of different detectors in different environments and contexts, and the analysis of recordings for call measurements.
to provide guidelines in equipment selection, experimental designs for acoustic surveys and monitoring.
to explain the procedure of reference call library development and the importance for regional research and conservation in bats.

What we did:

The participants comprised eleven Myanmar bat researchers, including ten university lecturers and one masters student.

three face-to-face lectures on “Echolocation call designs: the role of ecology and taxonomy”, “Bat echolocation calls: description and measurement”, and “Field equipment and recording methods” were given by Dr. Kingston, Dr. Thong, and Huang.
two in-class trainings on using BatSound Pro software (http://www.batsound.com/) for call description and measurements by Dr. Furey and Huang
two field training sessions on the use of Pettersson D240X bat detector (http://www.batsound.com/?p=9) for call recording, reference call collection in Yankin Hill, Patheingyi Township, Mandalay and University Mandalay campus.
Three additional lectures on “echolocation call variations”, “Designs of acoustic survey and monitory”, and “echolocation call library” were designed by Dr. Kingston, Dr. Furey, and Huang were distributed. Additional reference on bat echolocation studies and standard data sheets for call measurements were provided

Data Management

Leads: Danny Squire, Marina Fisher-Phelps

Objectives:

Data Management Objectives:

Participants understand the importance of data management
Participants convert existing research data into SEABCRU Darwin Core format
Participants able to use SEABCRU Darwin Core data collection format in their future research initiatives
Participants able to instruct others in the use of SEABCRU Darwin Core format

Geographically Information Systems (GIS) Objectives:

Participants understand the uses of digitally maps in publications and presentations
Participants understand what a geographic datum is and how it applies to digital mapping and spatial data collection
Participants format spatial data so that it can be easily loaded into the GIS software DIVA-GIS
Participants use spatial data to build maps of point data that can be used in publications and presentations

What we did:

The 2014 Data Management and GIS Workshop at Mandalay consisted of instructional presentations by the instructors and hands-on activities for the participants. The participants were instructed in the benefits of having a data management plan and using GIS in their own research and at their universities. Participants learned about the development of the Darwin Core format and how it is used by SEABCRU in data collection and sharing. Participants learned the difference between geographic datums and how to efficiently store spatial coordinates so that they can imported into GIS software. Participants were given the open-source GIS software DIVA-GIS for use during and after the workshop. The participants also created maps using the data collected by the workshop as a whole. Throughout the workshop participants were given hands-on activities so they could practice and demonstrate mastery of the training.

Flying Fox Survey and Monitoring

Lead: Dr Tammy Mildenstein, Facilitators: Prof. Paul Racey, Susan Tsang

Objectives:

The flying fox group focused on the SEABCRU flying fox priority of collating information on current populations and distributions of flying fox species. In conducting the workshop activities, we were able to

a) identify information gaps,
b) identify conservation priorities,
c) collate existing population data of confirmed flying fox roosts,
d) train participants in standardized monitoring protocols and personal protective measures regarding pathogen transmission.

What we did:

Participants comprised 8 post-doctoral professors and 4 M.Sc. students representing 5 universities across Myanmar. We reiterated the importance of monitoring flying fox colonies for conservation, along with why protection of flying foxes should be a priority because of the ecosystem services they provide. We taught the participants the standardized methods for monitoring and assessment common for flying fox colonies. We followed up with hands-on training by visiting a Pteropus giganteus colony two hours drive from Mandalay (Shwe Saydi Pagoda) and gave the participants the opportunity to practice both direct and emergence counts. While at the site, an overview of personal protective equipment was given and each participant was familiarized with why this is important to prevent pathogen transmission. After reassembling in the classroom the following day, we analyzed the data as a group for a finalized population estimate. Using the data collected from the participants, we demonstrated common sources of variance and discussed how that may affect trend detection. We were able to determine that the Shwe Saydi population has declined in the past decade by comparing the count data we took to data available from the dissertation of one of the participants (Moe Moe Aung, 2006), either due to increased human activity or displacement of bats by birds at the pagoda. The participants were thus able to have a real example of how historical information about the site can add value to the study and provide keener insight on flying fox population trends. We had the participants recap what they had learned at the end of the workshop.

In a session that involved participants from all working groups, we asked for information to help create a list of reported flying fox roost sites around Myanmar, which were primarily clustered around either the Mandalay-Sagaing Region or in areas near Yangon (Fig. 8). Very little information is available about the status of flying fox roosts in more remote areas such as Kachin. Many of the roost sites indicated had not been confirmed, and provide opportunities for projects for M.Sc. students.

Publishing In Regional and International Journals

Lead Dr. Neil Furey. Facilitators Dr Dave Lane, Dr Zubaid Akbar, all attendant steering committee.

Objectives:

The majority of participants have already written research theses at Myanmar universities, and obtained their M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees, but none have published their work in major international Journals. Acceptance of publications will raise the profile of Myanmar bat research and conservation activities both locally and internationally. An additional benefit/outcome anticipated from this internationalization exercise is the development of collaborative relationships and possible linking in to grant-giving bodies for future research proposals. The objectives of this section were thus:

To explain the scientific publishing process
To demonstrate how a scientific paper is written by actually preparing articles using real data collected by each participant

What we did:

Participants were first asked to describe the bat research data sets they had generated through prior work (available as dissertations and theses, but not published). They were then matched to members of the steering committee with similar interests and experience. These steering committee members then acted as mentors, working one-on-one or in pairs or small groups, through practical exercises. In these exercises, basic outlines of each part of a publication were introduced, and then the pairs/groups prepared bullet point summaries of each section based on their own data.

At the end of the day and a half, the participants each presented a summary of the draft paper outline. Participants will work with their mentors to prepare full drafts within three months, with the deadline for submission to an international journal set at 6 months.

And here is an album of participants and facilitators. Thank you to everyone for working so hard together to make the workshop a success!! It is so exciting to have bat researchers from Myanmar joining the SEABCRU.

Building India’s call libary

Claire Wordley — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 17:45:57 +0000

Barbastella leucomelas darjelingensis (Photo Claire Wordley)

Research to understand bat diversity and bat responses to changing landscapes is often hampered by a lack of echolocation call libraries in the tropics. Here we publish the calls of fifteen species from five families found in the southern Western Ghats of India, with five species having their call published here for the first time. Several species were not predicted by IUCN range maps to live in this area, most notably Barbastella leucomelas darjelingensis which was found over 2,000 km from its known range (temperate northern India) in the steamy rainforests of the south. Several of the species published here range across South and South East Asia, and we describe how their echolocation calls vary in frequency across the continent. We hope that this call library will facilitate more research and monitoring of bats in South India, and encourage the creation of more call libraries across the Indian subcontinent.

Claire FR Wordley, Eleni K Foui, Divya Mudappa, Mahesh Sankaran, and John D Altringham (2014). Acoustic identification of bats in the Southern Western Ghats, India. Acta Chiropterologica: 16 (1), 213-222. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3161/150811014X683408

http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.3161/150811014X683408 N.B. – Paper will be open access shortly

Echolocation in Cambodian Bats – building up regional knowledge

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 18 Sep 2013 02:46:22 +0000

One of the directions for future research that I highlighted in my recent chapter on bat research in SE Asia was understanding how the edge/gap and open space insectivorous bats respond to habitat loss and land-use change. Because bats in these ensembles can be hard to catch but emit relatively high-intensity echolocation calls, acoustic surveys and monitoring will underpin this research. As full-spectrum bat detectors with on-board processing and recording capabilities drop in price, this becomes ever more feasible. However, the limiting factor remains the availability of reference calls against which to compare field recordings. Meanwhile, recording the resting frequency of members of the Hipposideridae and Rhinolophidae adds to our knowledge of species distributions, species boundaries and the role of echolocation in speciation. Sophany, Sarith and Neil are to be congratulated on on their recent publication describing echolocation calls of 17 bats species in Cambodia and assessing the potential to discriminate among species based on the call parameters. Don’t let calls sit storage — describe, publish and share!

Phauk, S., Phen, S., Furey, N. M (2013). Cambodian bat echolocation: a first description of assemblage call parameters and assessment of utility for species identification. Cambodian Journal of Natural History 2013 (1) 16-26.

Attached -Phauk_et_ al_ (2013)

Prey detection performance in Kerivoulinae and Murininae

Tigga Kingston — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 20:31:52 +0000

In much of SE Asia, the Kerivoula and Murina forage for insects in dense forest habitats. Using echolocation to detect prey in such “acoustically cluttered” environments is a challenge because of the problems of forward and backward masking. The role of the extremely broad-band, high-frequency FM sweeps in prey detection in these vespertilionid subfamilies was investigated experimentally with wild-caught bats in Peninsular Malaysia, specifically the relationship between bandwidth and backward masking. Based on work on European Myotis we hypothesized that bats should be able to detect prey close to background. All the tested species were able to catch a suspended mealworm as close as 6 cm from a standardized vegetation-like background, and some as close as 2.5 cm. The performance and call data corroborate the hypothesis that bats with very broadband calls and high-frequency components have access to prey very close to vegetation and establish this as a more general principle in bat sensory ecology.

Schmieder, D. A., Kingston, T., Hashim, R., Siemers, B. M. (2012), Sensory constraints on prey detection performance in an ensemble of vespertilionid understorey rain forest bats. Functional Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2012.02024.x

Abstract can be read here. For a pdf, please contact tigga(dot)kingston(at)ttu(dot)edu,

A video explaining the study for a lay audience is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dQbgC5n7mAI# with a lay summary here http://www.functionalecology.org/view/0/summaries.html#schmieder

The paper is dedicated to our dear friend and colleague Bjoern Siemers, who tragically passed away in May 2012.

Monitoring Bat Diversity in REDD Projects

Matthew Struebig — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:27:40 +0000

If done well, REDD+ projects (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) may not only save carbon rich forests, but also protect embattled biodiversity. But what’s the best way to ensure both and carbon and species are preserved under REDD+, a program that proposes to pay nations to keep forests standing?

A new study authored by SEABCRU members Mark Harrison, Arjan Boonman and Matthew Struebig in Tropical Conservation Science argues that a one-size-fits-all approach to monitoring biodiversity in REDD+ projects would not only be difficult to develop, but would likely fail. In their paper the researchers directly oppose an earlier study, also in TCS, that argued for standardized biodiversity monitoring based on camera traps and acoustic monitoring of bats. While researchers admit both methods could play important roles in monitoring, they should not be wholly depended on. Regarding acoustic monitoring, the authors argue that if call identification issues in Southeast Asia can be overcome, acoustic monitoring could be very useful if it accompanied surveys in capture surveys.

New Hipposideros from Vietnam

Faisal Ali Anwarali Khan — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:27:35 +0000

Congratulations to Vu Dinh and his co-authors on the description of new Hipposideros species from Vietnam. This new cryptic species from the armiger-species group, H. griffini is similar to H. armiger in its external characteristics but appears to have higher echolocation frequencies (76.6 to 79.2 kHz) compared to those of H. armiger (64.7–68.8 kHz). Hipposideros griffini also can be generally distinguished based on its smaller body size, craniodental, skull and teeth compared to H. armiger. Presently, H. griffini is only known from two disjunct localities in Vietnam: Cat Ba National Park, Cat Hai District, and Chu Mom Ray National Park, Kon Tum Province. The former is situated on an offshore island in northern Vietnam and the latter on the mainland Vietnam. Both, H. armiger and H. griffini can be found in sympatry in Vietnam. This further highlights the importance of incorporating multiple datasets such as morphology, echolocation and genetics in discovering cryptic bat species in Southeast Asia.

A new species of Hipposideros (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) from Vietnam
Author(s): Vu Dinh Thong, Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Annette Denzinger, Christian Dietz, Gabor Csorba,
Paul J. J. Bates, Emma C. Teeling, and Hans-Ulrich Schnitzler
Journal of Mammalogy, 93(1):1-11. 2012.
Contact: thong@iebr.ac.vn for reprints

Bumblee bats, sensory drive and speciation

Tigga Kingston — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:12:26 +0000

Congratulations to the team lead by Sebastien Peuchmaille on their recent publication in Nature Communications. The team from seven countries and ten institutions explored acoustic and genetic divergence in populations of the bumblebee bat (Crasionycteris thonglongyai) and the study makes a great contribution to the discussion on the role of sensory drive in speciation.

They were able to sample bats from nearly all known populations, and thus could compare genetic and acoustic differences between the allopatric Myanmar and Thai populations and within the geographically continuous Thai population. Their findings suggest that it is geographic limitations on gene flow that promote sensory divergence via local adaptation. The paper is open access and can be viewed/downloaded here.

Sebastien J. Puechmaille, Meriagdeg Ar Gouilh, Piyathip Piyapan, Medhi Yokubol, Khin Mie Mie, Paul J. Bates, Chutamas Satasook, Tin New, Si Si Hla Bu, Iain J. Mackie, Eric J. Petit and Emma C. Teeling (2011). The evolution of sensory divergence in the context of limited gene flow in the bumblebee bat. Nature Communications 2, 573. doi: 10.1038/ncomms1582.

The study is dedicated to the memory of Professor Daw Tin Nwe of Yangon University, a great supporter of bat research and international collaborations in Myanmar.