Interesting Nature briefing story - Bats buzz like hornets to scare off owls

Some bats can imitate the sound of buzzing hornets to scare off owls — the first documented case of a mammal mimicking an insect to deter predators. Researchers compared the sound structure of buzzing by the European hornet to that of the distress call of greater mouse-eared bats. At most frequencies, the two sounds were not dramatically similar, but they were when the bat’s call was stripped down to include only frequencies that owls can hear. “It makes total sense to me that bats, with their remarkable vocal abilities, would resort to acoustic means to fool predators,” says animal-behaviour ecologist Mirjam Knörnschild. Please see this fantastic article on Nature

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