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Cognitive map-based navigation in wild bats revealed by a new high-throughput tracking system

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Jul 09, 2020 version files 48.95 MB

Abstract

Seven decades of research on the “cognitive map”, the allocentric representation of space, have yielded key neurobiological insights, yet we still lack field evidence from free-ranging wild animals. Using a system capable of tracking dozens of animals simultaneously at high accuracy and resolution, we assembled a large dataset of 172 foraging Egyptian fruit bats comprising >18M localizations collected over 3,449 bat-nights across 4 years. Detailed track analysis, combined with translocation experiments, revealed that wild bats seldom exhibit random search but instead repeatedly forage in goal-directed, long and straight flights that include frequent shortcuts. Alternative non-map-based strategies were ruled out by simulations, time-lag embedding and other trajectory analyses. Our results are consistent with expectations from cognitive map-like navigation and support previous neurobiological evidence from captive bats.