Tag: "bat" at biology news

Moths mimic sounds to survive

... the tymbals to make specific sounds that warn the bat of their bad taste. Other species make sounds that closely mimic those high-frequency sounds. “We found that the bats do not eat the good-tasting moths that make the similar sounds,” said Barber, who has worked on this research for four years. ...

Invasion of the island bats

...unique circumstances of each case. Analysis of bat DNA published in Journal of Biogeography reveal th...he culmination in the study of several independent bat groups, this article shows that reverse colonization is a feature of the entire Caribbean bat commun...

Bats get the munchies too!

...It was found that ethanol levels measured in fruit bat breath declined faster after feeding on fructose-containing food, than when the food contained either sucrose or glucose (two other types of sugar). Furthermore when the amount of ethanol in food increased the fruit bats preferred food which containe...

New sucker-footed bat discovered in Madagascar

Scientists have discovered a new species of bat that has large flat adhesive organs, or suckers, a...nd feet. This is a remarkable find because the new bat belongs to a Family of bats endemic to Madagascar--and one that was previously considered to include...

Bats prey on nocturnally migrating songbirds

...n Seville, Spain, suggested that the giant noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus), a rare European species oc...strikingly with food composition of other European bat species which all feed exclusively on invertebrates! This finding brought about a heated controv...

To elude bats, a moth keeps its hearing in tune

...ncy (pitch) sensitivity in response to sound. As a bat gets closer to a moth, both the loudness and frequ...s point out that, in view of the vast diversity of bat calls, this is to be expected. ...

Embryonic selection of sex avoids conceiving blind children

...e disease. With women, however, they born healthy, bat there is a 50% probability of being carriers. The embryonic selection of sex is the only recourse open in order to avoid male children suffering from the disease with the consequent possibility of going blind. This is because, in order to select he...

Cultural transmission in bats: When listening for dinner, bats learn from their neighbors

...d Ryan investigated the role of social learning in bat foraging flexibility. Comparing three different le...ent means: (a) a social learning group, in which a bat inexperienced with the new call-food association was allowed to observe an experienced bat; (b) a so...

NHGRI announces latest sequencing targets

...ia species); rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus); and a bat species that will be determined based on the availability of a high-quality DNA sample and the selected bat's promise as a biomedical model. NHGRI has recently approved the sequencing of the horse (Equus caballus) to high-density genome coverage. A...

Bats use touch receptors on wings to fly, catch prey, study finds

...have a "feel" for it, too. John Zook's studies of bat flight suggest that touch-sensitive receptors on b...t improved lift. But if you curve it too much, the bat ?or plane ?may suddenly lose lift, hitting a stall point and falling out of the air. These receptor ...

Rabies spread speeds up

...t rabies fatalities in the United States stem from bat bites, far more people are treated for raccoon rabies. In 1990, raccoons topped the list of most often reported rabid mammal. Controlling the spread of rabies depends on predicting the spatial dynamics of the disease - where new outbreaks might occur...

Vampire bats keep out of trouble by running

...that they like to walk around on the ground; other bat species fumble helplessly when left to walk. But r...o everything a little differently from the general bat rule," Riskin says about what he refers to as the "cute, adorable, big-eyed and family-oriented" vam...

Molecular biology fills gaps in knowledge of bat evolution

...riginated, when they diversified and how different bat families are related to each other," Springer said...ns of 17 nuclear genes from representatives of all bat families. Their results support the hypothesis that the group of large fruit-eating bats from the t...

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