Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Behavior-Island (Navigating, Decision-Making and Sociality, Studying Behavior in the Wild from Birth to Adulthood)
Reporting period: 2023-02-01 to 2024-07-31
Understanding how animals behave and make decisions in their natural environment is critical for conservation, especially in our rapidly changing world. But even with modern state-of-the-art technologies, studying animal behavior in the wild is highly limited because: (1) it is 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. The BehaviorIsland ERC project aims to overcome these limitations by using new tracking technology which allows long-term continuous tracking of dozens of animals from birth to adulthood.
Using a combination of technologies allows us to study some of the most fundamental aspects of behavior in the wild including: Navigation and its ontogeny; Long-term spatio-temporal memory, Decision making and Sociality.
We focus on two species of fruit bats which have several clear advantages as animal models: (a) They are relatively large and can carry multiple sensors without compromising their wellbeing. (b) They live long (~25 years) making long-term spatio- temporal memory beneficial for them as is indeed exhibited by their ability to memorize the locations of trees that ripen in different seasons. (c) They are highly social, making their long-term bonds meaningful and interesting.
Our overarching goal is to reveal new insight into animal decision making in the wild. This goal can be broken into several specific objectives including - shedding light on animal navigation, examining the ability of animals to map space and time, revealing the importance of social information on foraging decision making and the role of vocal sequences in conveying information. We moreover examine how experience and personality interact in shaping behavior.
The approach and technology that are developed as part of this project enable studying the same individual animals from birth to adulthood. We plan to make all the technology which will be developed in this project available for other researchers, thus broadening the impact of the project far beyond the specific animal model and system that we are focusing on.
The current lack of understanding of animal behavior in the wild limits our understanding of their needs, hindering our ability to make conservation decisions, which are crucial in our changing world. Specifically, one of the species we work with is endemic to Mauritius and in threat due to a conflict with local farmers and our project is expected to assist its conservation.
Using a combination of technologies allows us to study some of the most fundamental aspects of behavior in the wild including: Navigation and its ontogeny; Long-term spatio-temporal memory, Decision making and Sociality.
We focus on two species of fruit bats which have several clear advantages as animal models: (a) They are relatively large and can carry multiple sensors without compromising their wellbeing. (b) They live long (~25 years) making long-term spatio- temporal memory beneficial for them as is indeed exhibited by their ability to memorize the locations of trees that ripen in different seasons. (c) They are highly social, making their long-term bonds meaningful and interesting.
Our overarching goal is to reveal new insight into animal decision making in the wild. This goal can be broken into several specific objectives including - shedding light on animal navigation, examining the ability of animals to map space and time, revealing the importance of social information on foraging decision making and the role of vocal sequences in conveying information. We moreover examine how experience and personality interact in shaping behavior.
The approach and technology that are developed as part of this project enable studying the same individual animals from birth to adulthood. We plan to make all the technology which will be developed in this project available for other researchers, thus broadening the impact of the project far beyond the specific animal model and system that we are focusing on.
The current lack of understanding of animal behavior in the wild limits our understanding of their needs, hindering our ability to make conservation decisions, which are crucial in our changing world. Specifically, one of the species we work with is endemic to Mauritius and in threat due to a conflict with local farmers and our project is expected to assist its conservation.
We have established a reverse GPS tracking system covering a region of ~ 25 km2 in Mauritius. We used the system to track more than 100 bats so far, some of which were tracked for a full year. Such long tracking will allow studying the bats’ spatial and temporal memory which is one of the main goals of the study. We have developed a method for manipulating the resources available to the bats by offering food at feeding stations. This allowed us to monitor various behaviors (e.g. food defense) under natural conditions. We will use these stations to manipulate the distribution of the food and examine bats’ decision making when the distribution of food changes.
In parallel to the work in Mauritius, we continue to track fruit-bats in Israel using GPS-tags. This allowed us to make progress on several aims including:
(1) Examining seasonal mortality in wild bats, revealing an immense increase in death rate in winter due to the harsh weather conditions for this species. (2) Examining bat navigation using machine-learning (artificial neural networks) to provide new insight into visual-based navigation in bats and in other animals. (3) Examining bat decision making in a changing environment – examining whether bats alter their learning rate in volatile environments. (4) Examining the complexity of bat vocal communication, revealing that bat vocal sequences contain contextual information.
Altogether, we have made progress towards almost all the aims defined in the project.
In parallel to the work in Mauritius, we continue to track fruit-bats in Israel using GPS-tags. This allowed us to make progress on several aims including:
(1) Examining seasonal mortality in wild bats, revealing an immense increase in death rate in winter due to the harsh weather conditions for this species. (2) Examining bat navigation using machine-learning (artificial neural networks) to provide new insight into visual-based navigation in bats and in other animals. (3) Examining bat decision making in a changing environment – examining whether bats alter their learning rate in volatile environments. (4) Examining the complexity of bat vocal communication, revealing that bat vocal sequences contain contextual information.
Altogether, we have made progress towards almost all the aims defined in the project.
We are working on several additional novel technologies which will allow a deeper monitoring of the bats including: (1) Automatic scales which weigh the animals nightly and identify the individuals while doing so. We expect to use these systems to monitor how individual choices (e.g. where to forage and with whom) affect foraging success which will be assessed based on their weight gain.
(2) Proximity tags which will allow monitoring of inter-individual distances in the colony more accurately. This will allow us to examine the role of inter-individual information transfer in foraging decision-making.
(3) Automatic feeders which will allow feeding specific individuals based on identifying them (e.g. using RFID). This system will allow creating complex social manipulations such as providing food to certain individuals while depriving others.
These developments, in combination with the long-term tracking will allow addressing one of the main questions of the project – whether bats map time in addition to space and whether such temporal maps affect their decision making.
Another question that we expect to address is the connection between the bats’ experience as young pups and their foraging strategies as adults. We will expose young pups to various levels of environmental complexity and take advantage of our tracking system to examine this.
Altogether, we are confident that this project will yield much valuable information about how wild animals make decisions and use their habitats, information that might also be useful for human decision makers involved in conservation and development.
(2) Proximity tags which will allow monitoring of inter-individual distances in the colony more accurately. This will allow us to examine the role of inter-individual information transfer in foraging decision-making.
(3) Automatic feeders which will allow feeding specific individuals based on identifying them (e.g. using RFID). This system will allow creating complex social manipulations such as providing food to certain individuals while depriving others.
These developments, in combination with the long-term tracking will allow addressing one of the main questions of the project – whether bats map time in addition to space and whether such temporal maps affect their decision making.
Another question that we expect to address is the connection between the bats’ experience as young pups and their foraging strategies as adults. We will expose young pups to various levels of environmental complexity and take advantage of our tracking system to examine this.
Altogether, we are confident that this project will yield much valuable information about how wild animals make decisions and use their habitats, information that might also be useful for human decision makers involved in conservation and development.