Geographical variation in echolocation vocalizations of the Himalayan leaf‐nosed bat: contribution of morphological variation and cultural drift

Ecologists and evolutionary biologists have a long‐standing interest in the patterns and causes of geographical variation in animals’ acoustic signals. Nonetheless, the processes driving acoustic divergence are still poorly understood. Here, we studied the geographical variation in echolocation vocalizations (commonly referred to as echolocation ‘pulses’ given their short duration and relatively stereotypic nature, and to contrast them from the communicative vocalizations or ‘calls’) of a widespread bat species Hipposideros armiger in south China, and assessed whether the acoustic divergence was driven by either ecological selection, or cultural or genetic drift. Our results revealed that the peak frequency of echolocation pulses varied significantly across populations sampled, with the maximum variation of about 6 kHz. The peak frequency clustered into three groups: eastern and western China, Hainan and southern Yunnan. The population differences in echolocation pulses were not significantly related to the variation in climatic (mean annual temperature, mean annual relative humidity, and mean annual precipitable water) or genetic (genetic distance) factors, but significantly related to morphological (forearm length) variation which was correlated with mean annual temperature. Moreover, the acoustic differences were significantly correlated with geographical and latitudinal distance after controlling for ‘morphological distance’. Thus, neither direct ecological selection nor genetic drift contributed to the acoustic divergence observed in H. armiger. Instead, we propose that the action of both indirect ecological selection (i.e. selection on body size) as well as cultural drift promote, in part, divergence in echolocation vocalizations of individuals within geographically distributed populations.