AUTHOR=Fan Baozhu , Wang Yujuan , Huang Xiaobin , Zhang Xianzheng , Yang Jinting , Jiang Tinglei TITLE=The Potential to Encode Detailed Information About Parasites in the Acoustic Signals of Chinese Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophus sinicus) JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution VOLUME=10 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2022.908209 DOI=10.3389/fevo.2022.908209 ISSN=2296-701X ABSTRACT=
Condition-dependent acoustic signals that potentially reveal information about the signaler’s physical or physiological condition are common and important in the animal kingdom. Given the negative effects of parasites on the health and fitness of their hosts, it is reasonable to expect animal acoustic signals to reflect detailed information concerning parasite infection. However, despite previous studies having verified the potential of sexually selected vocalizations to provide information on parasitism based on the correlations between call acoustic properties and parasitism in some animal taxa, less is known about whether acoustic signals used in a non-sexual context also reflect parasite infection especially for highly vocal bats. We thus investigated the relationships between the acoustic properties of distress calls and echolocation pulses and the infestation intensity of gamasid mites and bat flies in Chinese horseshoe bats (