Nationalgeographic.co.id—Ohio State University team of scientists collected 49 bats frog eater with a series of sounds that caught their attention. The sound is the sound of the mating call of the male túngara frog species (Engystomops pustulosus) which is the bat’s preferred prey.
Scientists trained these bats to fly towards a sound source which was then replaced with a ringing tone. After being trained, the bat is then released and fitted with a micro chip so that it can be tracked.
Subsequently, between one and four years later, 8 of the bats were recaptured and again exposed to food-related noises. All of them flew in the direction of the sound, and 6 flew to the speaker and took the food prize, which means they hope to find food.
May Dixon, a postdoctoral researcher and researcher at Ohio State University, said she was surprised by the results and didn’t think the bats still remembered the sound they heard 1 year ago.
“I was shocked! I thought that at least a year would be a reasonable time for them to remember, remember everything else they needed to know and remember that long-term memory does have a real cost,” Dixon said.
“Four years I think is a long time to retain a voice you may never hear again.”
The research report has been published in the journal Current Biology by title “Long-term memory in frog-eating bats” on June 20, 2022.
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Frog-eating bats can remember what they learn for up to four years in the wild.
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In their study, Dixon and colleagues described bats Trachops cirrhosus which is captured wildly to a very attractive sound in the laboratory. If they approach the source of the sound, the bats will get the frog meat they like.
Over time, the sounds mix and are gradually replaced by ringtones, but the reward is the same. The researchers then introduced three other ringtones, none of which were linked to a food reward.
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