Experimental studies of the ontogeny of ultrasonic vocalizations in bats

✍ Scribed by Dr. Edwin Gould

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 806 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-1630
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.420080407

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The ontogeny of FM pulses emitted by bats is a process of maturation that is not easily altered by experimental manipulation during early development. Infants that were hand‐raised and infants that were raised by mothers with altered voices (the superior laryngeal nerves were cauterized pre‐ and postpartum) emitted normal adult calls. Effects of pinching the superior laryngeal nerves of young bats with a cold forceps on their vocalizations suggest that the development of this nerve and its associated musculature occurs early in the bat's postnatal life.