Data from: Geographical variation and discrimination of social calls in male great Himalayan leaf-nosed bats: Do functionally similar calls have similar patterns?

Geographical variation in animals’ acoustic signals has received much
attention. However, few studies have compared the patterns and underlying
selective forces driving geographical divergence of vocalizations with
similar and different functions within the same species. Also, the social
consequences of geographical divergence in acoustic signals are still
rather poorly understood. Here we recorded three types of social calls of
male great Himalayan leaf-nosed bats (Hipposideros armiger) across eight
colonies in China. Two calls share similar functions and the third has a
function distinct from the other two. We examined the patterns and causes
of geographical variation of each of these calls. We found that all three
calls had significant geographic variation with similar patterns of
spatial variation. Only one of the two social calls with similar functions
was found to be affected by genetic drift, while the other two calls were
not affected by selection and drift, or morphological constraints.
Furthermore, we found that bats could discriminate between vocalizations
of their own colony and those of an allopatric colony. Overall, these
results suggest that acoustic signals with similar functions may be shaped
by different driving forces and acoustic signals with different functions
may exhibit similar geographical patterns. This study expands our limited
knowledge of the patterns of geographical variation of vocalizations
emitted at different emotional states and highlights the importance of
comparing simultaneously patterns and causes of geographical divergence of
vocalizations with similar and different functions.