嗡嗡复嗡嗡，学到手就能吓退猫头鹰｜科学60秒
蝙蝠也会嗡嗡叫
你有没有体验过一直被人学说话的无厘头玩笑？也就是有人一直模仿你，无休无止地重复你说的话？你可能觉得TA这么做只是想惹恼你，但有些小动物可能会通过模仿声音来自保。
最近，研究人员发现某些蝙蝠会像蜜蜂一样嗡嗡叫，而这种声音可能会阻止猫头鹰吃掉它们。这项研究发表在《当代生物学》（Current Biology）杂志上。
论文的通讯作者达尼洛·鲁索（Danilo Russo）表示：“这个想法可以追溯到二十多年前。”鲁索是意大利那不勒斯费德里科二世大学（Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II）的生态学教授，“我那时正在攻读博士学位，碰巧捉到了一些更大只的鼠耳蝠（Myotis），当我把它们从捕网中取出时，当我对它们进行处理时，它们总是像黄蜂或大黄蜂一样嗡嗡作响。”
但这种不寻常的突发性听觉攻击有什么意义呢？是一种不由自主的痛苦尖叫吗？还是为了警告同伴？鲁索猜想：这会不会是一种机智的尝试，为的是让潜在的捕食者认为，如果不想落得满脸蜇伤它们最好还是别靠近？“这个想法的确很有吸引力，但测试起来并不容易，我花了很长时间来设计合适的实验。”
研究人员做的第一件事，是将鼠耳蝠发出的声音与膜翅目昆虫发出的声音进行比较，比如蜜蜂和黄蜂。“我们在野外录下了4种带刺膜翅目昆虫的嗡嗡声，也录下了手中这些蝙蝠的模拟嗡嗡，然后对这些不同的嗡嗡声进行统计学测试，研究它们是否相似相似到足以迷惑捕食者。”
结果他们发现，这些嗡嗡声相似度极高。大黄蜂的嗡嗡声长这样 [嗡嗡~嗡嗡~]，而蝙蝠们在模仿这种不祥的嗡嗡声上做得很好 [嗡~嗡~嗡~嗡~]。但更有趣的是，当研究人员……[查看全文]
These Bats Buzz like Bees to Save Their Own Lives
Have you ever found yourself stuck in what felt like a never ending game of "stop copying me"…in which one person keeps repeating what the other one says? You probably figured that the person parroting you was just trying to be annoying. But some critters might use vocal mimicry to save their skins.
In a recent study, researchers found that certain bats buzz like bees…a sound that could discourage owls from eating them. The work appears in the journal Current Biology.
Danilo Russo: The idea a dates back to over two decades ago.
Hopkin: Danilo Russo is a professor of ecology at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy.
Russo: I was working for my PhD and I happened to capture some greater mouse-eared bats. When I took these bats out of the net, when I handled them, they invariably buzzed like wasps or hornets.
[Bat buzzing]
Hopkin: But what was the point of this unusual auditory outburst? Was it an involuntary squeak of distress? A warning cry to fellow roost mates? Or maybe, Russo wondered, was it a clever attempt to trick potential predators into thinking that they might want to back off if they don’t want to wind up with a face full of bee stings?
Russo: Of course, the idea was attractive, but it was not very easy to test. And it took me a long time to design the right experiment.
Hopkin: The first thing the researchers did was compare the sounds made by mouse-eared bats with those made by hymenopterans…insects like bees and wasps.
Russo: So we recorded four species of stinging hymenopterans in the field. As well as these buzzing bats in hand. And then we tested statistically whether these different buzzes could be similar enough to fool a predator.
Hopkin: And they found that the sounds were fairly similar. You already know what hornets sound like.
[hornet buzzing]
Hopkin: And the bats do a pretty good job of replicating that ominous hum.
[bat buzzing]
Hopkin: But even more interesting…when the researchers...[full transcript]
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Ancillotto, L., Pafundi, D., Cappa, F., Chaverri, G., Gamba, M., Cervo, R. and Russo, D., 2022. Bats mimic hymenopteran insect sounds to deter predators. Current Biology, 32(9), pp.R408-R409.
封面图来源：Adriano Pinto on Unsplash
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