Observational learning in three species of insectivorous bats (Chiroptera)

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) The potential importance of observational learning has been discussed for many orders of animals, but experimental evidence of this phenomenon in undomesticated mammals other than primates is rare. In this study three species of insectivorous vespertilionid bats (Myotis lucifugus, Eptesicus fuscus and Antrozous pallidus) acquired a novel feeding behaviour through interaction with a knowledgeable conspecific or, in some cases, a bat of another species. The response was not acquired through trial-and-error learning, and conditioning the response took significantly longer than acquisition by observing another bat.