Data from: Using sounds for making decisions: greater tube-nosed bats prefer antagonistic calls over non-communicative sounds when feeding

Bats vocalize extensively within different social contexts. The type and extent of information conveyed via their vocalizations and their perceptual significance, however, remains controversial and difficult to assess. Greater tube-nosed bats, Murina leucogaster, emit calls consisting of long rectangular broadband noise burst (rBNBl) syllables during aggression between males. To experimentally test the behavioral impact of these sounds for feeding, we deployed an approach and place-preference paradigm. Two food trays were placed on opposite sides and within different acoustic microenvironments, created by sound playback, within a specially constructed tent. Specifically, we tested whether the presence of rBNBl sounds at a food source effectively deters the approach of male bats in comparison to echolocation sounds and white noise. In each case, contrary to our expectation, males preferred to feed at a location where rBNBl sounds were present. We propose that the species-specific rBNBl provides contextual information, not present within non-communicative sounds, to facilitate approach towards a food source.蝙蝠在各类社交场景中会进行大量发声行为。然而，通过其鸣叫声传递的信息类型、传递范围，以及此类鸣叫声的感知意义，目前仍存在争议且难以评估。大管鼻蝠（Murina leucogaster）在雄性个体间的攻击行为中，会发出由长矩形宽带噪声脉冲（long rectangular broadband noise burst，rBNBl）音节组成的鸣叫声。为实验探究此类声音对蝙蝠取食行为的影响，我们采用了趋近-位置偏好实验范式。在特制的实验帐篷内，我们于两侧相对位置放置了两个食物托盘，并通过声音播放构建了不同的声学微环境。具体而言，我们对比了回声定位声波与白噪音，测试了食物源处播放rBNBl声音是否会有效抑制雄性蝙蝠的趋近行为。在所有实验条件下，雄性蝙蝠均偏好于rBNBl声音存在的位置取食，这与我们的初始预期相悖。我们推测，该物种特有的rBNBl鸣叫声携带了非交际性声音所不具备的情境信息，从而促进雄性蝙蝠趋近食物源。