Project description
Monitoring bats in the wild
The fruit bat known as the Mauritian flying fox (Pteropus niger) is the largest endemic mammal in Mauritius. Active at dusk and dawn, these bats are social and roost in large groups. They communicate with each other and create various noises. To find out more about these bats, the ERC-funded Behavior-Island project will monitor a large population of Mauritius’ bats. To study its behaviour in the wild, the project will use a new reverse-GPS system (ATLAS), allowing simultaneous tracking of 1 000 bats. Since the bats never leave the island, it will be possible to monitor individuals from birth to adulthood. The findings will also help to protect Mauritius’ bat, which is endangered and threatened.
Objective
In the movie the Truman Show, Truman Burbank is astonished when discovering that he spent his entire life in a TV show. Monitoring a humans life is unethical, but many sociologists secretly dream about running such an experiment. Behavior-Island will allow to continuously monitor and manipulate a large population of bats from birth to adulthood. Behavior-Island will be established on Mauritius - the home of P. niger, which is a very interesting bat-model that: (a) lives for decades relying on long-term memory; (b) roosts in large colonies and is highly social; (c) exhibits immense spatio-temporal memory; and (d) is large enough to carry many sensors allowing to track its pups from day one.
Even with current state-of-the-art technologies, studying animal behavior in the wild is highly limited because: (1) it is extremely difficult to monitor the same individual over long periods while also monitoring its environment and (2) it is almost impossible to monitor a substantial part of a population and thus we know little about social interactions. We will overcome these limitations by using a new reverse-GPS system (ATLAS) allowing simultaneous tracking of 1000 bats. Notably, because the bats never leave the island, we will monitor individuals from birth to adulthood. ATLAS also provides locations in real-time, allowing to manipulate specific individuals in the wild and to examine their response. We have already tracked bats with a preliminary ATLAS system on Mauritius.
Combined with an arsenal of additional technologies, ATLAS will allow studying fundamental aspects of behavior in the wild, for the first time, including: Navigation and its ontogeny; Long-term spatio-temporal memory, Decision making and Sociality. We will examine how experience and personality interact to shape behavior, and we will monitor an entire colony, documenting behavior in the population level. Because, P. niger is endangered and threatened, our work will also contribute to its protection
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG
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69978 Tel Aviv
Israel
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