Vol. 57, 2018 (update: 2018.07.12; 08.02) Postnatal Growth and Vocalization Development in the Long-fingered Bat, Myotis capaccinii (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)Robab Mehdizadeh, Hojjat Eghbali, and Mozafar Sharifi* doi:10.6620/ZS.2018.57-37
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Razi, Baghabrisham, 674967346, Kermanshah, Iran. E-mail: biomehdizadeh@gmail.com (Mehdizadeh); hojjateghbali@yahoo.com (Eghbali) (Received 26 January 2018; Accepted 1 July
2018; Communicated by Benny K.K. Chan) Robab
Mehdizadeh, Hojjat Eghbali, and Mozafar Sharifi (2018) We
simultaneously monitored postnatal growth and vocalization development
in a free living population of the long-fingered bat, Myotis capaccinii,
in a maternity colony in the Mahidasht cave, western Iran. Length of
forearm and body mass of 1-day-old neonates averaged 19.59 ± 1.23 mm
and 3.59 ± 0.23 g and followed linear pattern of growth at mean growth
rates of 0.74 mm/day and 0.15 g/day until 28 days of age, after which
is increased slowly. A similar nonlinear growth pattern was found for
ten wing characteristics (wingspan, wing area, handwing length,
handwing area, armwing length, armwing area, aspect ratio, wing
loading, tip length ratio, and tip area ratio). However, postnatal
growth followed a two phase linear pattern of increase-decrease for the
epiphyseal-phalangeal gap and decrease-increase for wing loading. At
birth, infant bats produced low, short frequency sonar and oral calls
in isolation before they could open their eyes. Isolation calls
obtained at age 1-4 days old from M. capaccinii pups were frequency
modulated shallow calls with longer duration (7.54 ± 1.83 ms) and lower
peak frequency (20.07 ± 0.89 kHz) compared to adult female calls (2.35 ± 0.75 ms and 54.02 ± 4.34 kHz). During days 12-16, calls
began to resemble adult echolocation calls. Duration of calls increased
slightly before 7 days old and then gradually decreased. The peak,
start and end frequencies of spontaneous calls increased with age. When
the juvenile bats started foraging outside the cave, they only omitted
nasal FM calls with 1-2 harmonics. Comparing postnatal changes in body
and wing characteristics with those of vocalization, we found that the
most positive correlation was between body (forearm length and body
mass) and wing features (wing area, wingspan, handwing area, armwing
area and aspect ratio) and call parameters (peak, start and end
frequency), while wing loading had a significant negative correlation
with the call parameters. Key words: Isolation calls, Body
features, Wing development, Ontogeny, Peak frequency. *Correspondence: E-mail:
sharifimozafar2012@gmail.com |