Bats have teeth and claw. Their heir cries range from 1 to 120 kilohertz and can be heard outside the range of human hearing.
We now know how bats are made, and why, thanks to a new study by researchers from the University of SouthernDenmark.
Bat calls are used to echolocate. Bats talk to each other using lower frequencies.
Bats use structures in their throat similar to those used by Tuvan throat singers.
Bats seem to use false vocal folds to make sounds between 1 and 5 kilohertz. It seems that these calls can sometimes be used to warn other bats.
Coen Elemans says that they identified for the first time what physical structures within the larynx made their vocalizations.
The false vocal folds are used by bats to make low frequencies calls.
The ventricular folds are not involved in the production of normal speaking or singing sounds. They may help protect the vocal folds, assist in maintaining pressure, and possibly help shape the voice. These folds are only involved in specialist forms of vocalization.
The range of a mammal's vocal range is 3 to 4 octaves. Elemans and his team decided to conduct some experiments in order to find out how bats can produce a wide range of frequencies.
They euthanized 8 adult bats that had been caught in the wild. In order to reproduce the dynamics of vocalization, 5 of the larynxes were mounted in an experimental setup. The film was made at a rate of 250,000 frames per second.
The motion of the vocal membranes was reconstructed using machine learning.
They found that the vocal cords vibrated at different frequencies. The range is similar to echolocation squeaks. Our primate ancestors probably had the same structure on the end of the vocal fold as we do, but it was lost on the way to becoming human.
Hkansson explained that they had filmed the vocal membranes for the first time.
We needed to film at a very high rate to show their strength. The bat's ability to catch insects while flying is due to many changes in the larynx.
The lowest frequencies vibrated the folds. The team concluded that the bats emit lower growls.
These growls are not clear what they mean. Nine more bats were captured and recorded by the researchers. Three of the bats growled when they were either returned to the roost or stroked by a human. The researchers say that this could be a clue as to what the growl is about.
Some seem aggressive, some may be an expression of annoyance, and some may have a very different function. He said that they don't know yet.
Results of future studies on bat vocalizations will be great for us.
The research was published in a journal.
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