title: The allocation of energy to echolocation pulses produced by soprano pipistrelles (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) during the wingbeat cycle.
abstract: Soprano pipistrelles exhibit considerable plasticity in both the structure and rate of echolocation call production. In search phase in the laboratory, calls are produced either as a single pulse per wingbeat cycle, or as double pulses. The amplitude of double pulses is reduced compared to the preceding single pulse. The energy flux density of either pulse of a double pulse per wingbeat was lower than a single pulse per wingbeat, and is achieved by a combination of reduction in both duration and amplitude. The combined energy of the double pulses is not significantly greater than the single pulse which precedes it. The decision to produce a double pulse may be an indication of the bat requiring additional information from the target. The production of double pulses per wingbeat may serve to achieve a higher rate of information flow for no significant increase in energetic expenditure when a possible target is detected. The proposal that echolocation during flight comes for free as a by-product of the intimate coupling among wingbeat, respiration, and echolocation is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, The Louis Compton Miall Building, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom. d.a.waters@leeds.ac.uk
authors.forename: Dean A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Waters
authors.forename: Josephine G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004455:Echolocation; D009068:Movement; D014743:Videotape Recording