Eavesdropping fringe-lipped bats spread culture through...
Rated • 1 review • zoology, bats, cultural transmission • eurekalert.org
A fringe-lipped bat eating a túngara frog
Image: Alexander T. Baugh
"Like a diner ordering a dessert based solely on the "oohs" and "aahs" of a customer eating the same dish the next table over, frog-eating bats learn to eat new prey by eavesdropping on their neighbors as they eat... bats quickly learned to associate a new frog call with edible prey by observing their neighbor eating, even when the call comes from a frog they wouldn't normally eat."
This is the first study to show cultural transmission of learning through acoustic, rather than visual or olfactory, prey cues. I suspect more will follow - particularly in animals such as bats who communicate largely by acoustic means.
