• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.779-788
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• 2017

In this study, we analyzed the changes in the echolocation and prey-capture behavior of the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum from search phase to capture time. The experiment was conducted in an indoor free-flight room fitted with an ultra-high-speed camera. We found that the bats searched for food while hanging from a structure, and capturing was carried out using the flight membrane. In addition, it was confirmed that the mouth and uropatagium were continuously used in tandem during the capturing process. Furthermore, using Constant Frequency (CF), we confirmed that the prey catching method reflected the wing morphology and echolocation pattern of R. ferrumequinum. The echolocation analysis revealed that the pulse duration, pulse interval, peak frequency, start-FM-bandwidth, and CF duration decreased as the search phase approached the terminal phase. Detailed analysis of echolocation pulse showed that the end-FM bandwidth, which increases as it gets nearer to the capture time of prey, was closely related to the accurate grasp of the location of an insect. At the final moment of prey capture, the passive listening that stopped the divergence of the echolocation was identified; this was determined to be the process of minimizing the interruption from the echo of the echolocation call emitted from the bat itself and sound waves emitted from the prey.

• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.160-175
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• 2015

The echolocation calls of bats can provide useful information about species that are generally difficult to observe in the field. In many cases characteristics of call structure can be used to identify species and also to obtain information about aspects of the bat's ecology. We describe and compare the echolocation call structure of 14 of the 21 bat species found in Korea, for most of which the ecology and behavior are poorly understood. In total, 1,129 pulses were analyzed from 93 echolocation call sequences of 14 species. Analyzed pulses could be classified into three types according to the pulse shape: FM/CF/FM type, FM type and FM/QCF type. Pulse structures of all species were consistent with previous studies, although geographic variation may be indicated in some species. Overall classification rate provided by the canonical discriminant analysis was relatively low. Especially in the genera Myotis and Murina, there are large overlaps in spectral and temporal parameters between species. On the other hand, classification rates for the FM/QCF type species were relatively high. The results show that acoustic monitoring could be a powerful tool for assessing bat activity and distribution in Korea, at least for FM/QCF and FM/CF/FM species.