15/09/2022
The researchers similarly tested the impact of white water noise on bat foraging. They set up small speakers that played insect sounds to attract passive-listening, or “gleaning” bats. Fluttering mechanical devices that mimicked flapping insect wings attracted active echolocating, or “hawking,” bats. In bat species that could both glean and hawk, gleaning behavior decreased and hawking increased when the researchers increased whitewater noise volume.
If changes in natural noises can so readily influence where animals live and how they forage, Gomes says, then it’s even more crucial to manage and mitigate the rapidly encroaching noises of people (SN: 5/4/17).
