Bats Obey The 'Rules Of The Road': Foragers Have Their Own Set Of 'Traffic Rules'

Bats may never drive cars, but they have been known to obey some 'traffic rules'--at least when it comes to turning and avoiding possible collisions when traveling at high speeds.

New findings show that when researchers examined Daubenton bats (Myotis daubentonii) that were foraging low over water for a tasty insect, these guidelines that the creatures had come up with came in handy.

"Collective movements of flocking birds or shoaling fish are amongst the most fascinating natural phenomena, and everyone has experienced the challenges of walking through a moving crowd," said Dr Marc Holderied of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, in a news release. "What information individuals use for movement coordination is, however, very difficult to know -- except in the case of echolocating bats."

A bit of road regulation helps these flying mammals better perceive their surroundings by emitting loud and high-pitched calls and listening for various returning echoes. Researchers calculated what each of the creatures perceived as the bats were busy foraging.

Study results showed that bats were more likely to obey their own intriguing set of rules in order to get around, avoid colision or even come to hault when in search of dinner.

Yet the study authors were even able to take their research a step further. They were able to model the bats' biosonar view of their surroundings during various interactions.

What did they discover? One simple trick worked to create all of the bats' interactive behaviors. They swapped leader-follower roles and performed chases or coordinated manoeuvres by copying the heading a nearby individual was using up to 500 milliseconds earlier by the speed of the blink of an eye.

"The bats seem to have adopted a simple trick: once another individual is close enough for your biosonar to pick up its echo, copy this individual's flight direction within four to five of your own wingbeats," added Dr Luca Giuggioli, a movement ecology expert.

"Quantifying the movement decisions that bats adopt to forage has implications well beyond animal ecology. By employing movement strategies that nature has optimized over millions of years, engineers may be able to improve the efficiency of search and rescue missions, monitoring tasks, and surveillance operations in the emerging market of flying drones and autonomous moving vehicles," he concluded. 

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