Earticle

We investigated structure and intensity of 267 echolocation calls that were collected from the five Korean Myotis species (M. nettereri, M. petax, M. ikonnikovi, M. macrodactylus and M. formosus). All the Myotis species produced typical FM call pattern with similar echolocation call shapes and outer shapes, producing steep, downward frequency-modulated calls. A pulse has two harmonies, which consist of the first harmony with wider bandwidth and the second harmony with narrower bandwidth. The PF of the first harmony is higher than that of the second harmony. The typical FM call structure, with two harmonies and wide bandwidth, might be highly related to fast flying and wide screening in the dense forests. In classification of the echolocation calls by DFA, most of calls from the five species could be well correctly classified. All calls of M. nettereri (100% of 17 calls), M. formosus (95.5% of 22 calls) and M. ikonnikovi (85.7% of 70 calls) could be well discriminated from those of the other species, whereas calls of M. petax and M. macrodactylus could be discriminated by 70.4% of 98 calls and 76.7% of 60 calls, respectively. Our results indicate that the five Korean Myotis species can be well identified by the echolocation calls with high correct classification by DFA.

Echolocation call structure and intensity were measured from the Malaysian Myotis muricola, which were recorded from the hand–released bat. The Malaysian M. muricola produced typical FM call pattern of the genus Myotis, producing steep, downward frequency-modulated calls. The average PF of calls is 64.39±1.33 (kHz). Discrete PF patterns of two types are found, which consist of 63.39 kHz and 66.15 kHz. The averages of SF and D are 126.07±3.37 kHz and 2.14±0.29 ms, respectively. There are various IPI lengths with average of 42.97±12.68 ms. A pulse consists of two harmonies which consist of the first harmony with wider bandwidth and the second harmony with narrower bandwidth. The PF of the first harmony is higher than that of the second harmony. The typical FM call structure, with two harmonies and wide bandwidth, would be highly related to fast flying and wide screening in the dense forests.

The echolocation calls of bats can provide useful information about species that are generally difficult to observe in the field. In many cases characteristics of call structure can be used to identify species and also to obtain information about aspects of the bat's ecology. We describe and compare the echolocation call structure of 14 of the 21 bat species found in Korea, for most of which the ecology and behavior are poorly understood. In total, 1,129 pulses were analyzed from 93 echolocation call sequences of 14 species. Analyzed pulses could be classified into three types according to the pulse shape: FM/CF/FM type, FM type and FM/QCF type. Pulse structures of all species were consistent with previous studies, although geographic variation may be indicated in some species. Overall classification rate provided by the canonical discriminant analysis was relatively low. Especially in the genera Myotis and Murina, there are large overlaps in spectral and temporal parameters between species. On the other hand, classification rates for the FM/QCF type species were relatively high. The results show that acoustic monitoring could be a powerful tool for assessing bat activity and distribution in Korea, at least for FM/QCF and FM/CF/FM species.