Cognitive map–based navigation in wild bats revealed by a new high-throughput tracking system

Link to Full Text

Download Full Text

Publication Date

7-10-2020

Publication Title

Science

Volume Number

369

Issue Number

6500

Abstract

Seven decades of research on the “cognitive map,” the allocentric representation of space, have yielded key neurobiological insights, yet field evidence from free-ranging wild animals is still lacking. Using a system capable of tracking dozens of animals simultaneously at high accuracy and resolution, we assembled a large dataset of 172 foraging Egyptian fruit bats comprising >18 million localizations collected over 3449 bat-nights across 4 years. Detailed track analysis, combined with translocation experiments and exhaustive mapping of fruit trees, revealed that wild bats seldom exhibit random search but instead repeatedly forage in goal-directed, long, and straight flights that include frequent shortcuts. Alternative, non–map-based strategies were ruled out by simulations, time-lag embedding, and other trajectory analyses. Our results are consistent with expectations from cognitive map–like navigation and support previous neurobiological evidence from captive bats.

Keywords

Bats, Navigation, Cognitive maps (Psychology)

Document Type

Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax6904

Language

English

Link to Full Text

Share

 
COinS