Vocal Imitation In Bats

Behavioural ecologist Mirjam Knornschild has been studying vocal imitation in sac-winged bats (Saccopteryx bilineata) in Costa Rica. Like song-birds and baby humans, the young bats begin babbling between 2 and 6 weeks old and this babbling slowly progresses to complete renditions of territorial songs. The young bats did not learn only from adult male kin, but from any mature harem male, who acted like a tutor. This bears uncanny similarity to the research on zebra finches by Constance Sharrff, which found that, like humans, there was a window when vocalizations could be learned and that expression of the gene FOXP2 soared in those parts of the avian brain associated with vocal learning and production. We already know (see my chapter THE LANGUAGE GENE THAT WASN'T in NOT A CHIMP) a number of bat species show considerable sequence variation on the FOXP2 gene. It would be very interesting to see if FOXP2 expression rose significantly in the young bats' brains, and where, during this period of acquisition of vocalizations.