Observational learning in three species of insectivorous bats (Chiroptera)

The potential importance of observational learning has been discussed for many orders of animals, but experimental evidence of this phenomenon in undomesticated mammals other than primates is rate. In this study three species of insectivorus vesperilionid bats (Myotis lucifugus, Eptesicus fuscus and Antrozous pallidus) acquired a novel feeding behaviour through interaction with a knowledgeable conspecific or, in some cases, a bat of another species. The response was not acquired through trial-and-error learning, and conditioning the response took significantly longer than acqisition by observing another bat.