GREATER SPEAR-NOSED BATS GIVE GROUP-DISTINCTIVE CALLS

Individually distinctive vocalizations are ubiquitous; however, group distinctive calls have rarely been demonstrated. Under some conditions , selection should favor calls indicating social group membership in a nimals that forage in groups. Greater spear-nosed bats (Phyllostomus h astatus) give calls that appear to facilitate recognition of social gr oup mates who are unrelated. Females give loud broadband (4-18 kHz) vo calizations termed screech calls when departing on foraging trips and at foraging sites. Screech calls help to establish foraging groups amo ng social group members, and to maintain contact over the long distanc es they travel while foraging. I test two hypotheses about how screech calls may be structured to convey caller identity. Individual calls m ay be distinct and group members may learn to recognize each individua l's calls and to associate the individual with the social group. Alter natively, groups may give distinct calls and individuals within groups may share call characteristics. To test these hypotheses I conducted multivariate acoustic analysis of multiple calls from 28 bats from thr ee social groups. Although the ubiquity of individually distinctive ca lls in other taxa makes this result more likely, the results reveal th at group calls are highly distinctive. Individual bats within groups a re statistically indistinguishable. Calls appear to decrease slightly in frequency as bats age. Call convergence among unrelated group mates implies vocal learning in this species.