Imagine being in the living room and from the bathroom you hear a scream: you will immediately see that anyone who kicked it is fine. Imagine now to be in the bathroom too, and to see that the person who screamed is actually very well: at that point you will ignore it, because You are able to reconcile two stimuli in conflict and understand what the real situation is. A study published on Current Biology It now shows that bats also know how to do the same thing.
Customized screams. Not all bats, of course: the study focused on the species Bubble bagsnative of the American continent. The original purpose of the study was to understand whether these bats are able to recognize their companions from the call, and in particular if the “screams” issued in case of danger are different for each individual, and help others identify it.
The results of this test have shown to scientists who yes, These bats each have a specific callwhich allows others to recognize the individual who issued it. And these calls are essential for this species: when an individual is in danger screams, e His companions exist to make sure of his condition – and to reject any predators who are threatening him.
“To the wolf! To the wolf!”. The team then tried a trick to deceive the bats: first they recorded some calls for help and reproduced them when the corresponding individuals were not in the room. Then they began to reproduce the calls when the specimen was present, and perfectly quiet. In the first case, as expected, the other bats rushed to investigate the noise.
In the second case, however, the animals noted that the call of danger did not correspond to the actual condition of those who had issued it, and therefore ignored their partner. This shows that these bats are able to make sense of contradictory signals and ignore those who do not correspond to reality (in this case the call of danger): according to the authors, this capacity is one of the bases of advanced cognitionand it is the first time that it is observed in bats.
