Inga Geipel

University of Antwerp | UA · Laboratory of Constrained Systems (CoSys-Lab)

Anthropogenic noise can interfere with environmental information processing and thereby reduce survival and reproduction. Receivers of signals and cues in particular depend on perceptual strategies to adjust to noisy conditions. We found that predators that hunt using prey sounds can reduce the negative impact of noise by making use of prey cues co...

Gleaning insectivorous bats that forage by using echolocation within dense forest vegetation face the sensorial challenge of acoustic masking effects. Active perception of silent and motionless prey in acoustically cluttered environments by echolocation alone has thus been regarded impossible. The gleaning insectivorous bat Micronycteris microtis h...

Adult animals of many taxa exhibit extended parental care by transferring food to inexperienced offspring, thus allocating nutritional and sometimes even informational benefits such as the acquisition of adult dietary preferences and foraging skills. In bats, postweaning food provisioning is severely understudied, despite the taxon’s diverse and co...

Many bats vocalizing through their nose carry a prominent noseleaf that is involved in shaping the emission beam of these animals. To our knowledge, the exact role of these appendages has not been thoroughly investigated as for no single species both the hearing and the emission spatial sensitivities have been obtained. In this paper, we set out to...

Ecological specialization and resource partitioning are expected to be particularly high in the species-rich communities of tropical vertebrates, yet many species have broader ecological niches than expected. In Neotropical ecosystems, Neotropical leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are one of the most ecologically and functionally diverse vertebrate...

Early predator detection is a key component of the predator-prey arms race and has driven the evolution of multiple animal hearing systems. Katydids (Insecta) have sophisticated ears, each consisting of paired tympana on each foreleg that receive sound both externally, through the air, and internally via a narrowing ear canal running through the le...

Predation can effectively limit insect herbivores with cascading effects on plant community composition and diversity of tropical rainforests. Assessing variation in predation is therefore important to understand the mechanisms structuring complex rainforest ecosystems. Variation in predation with time of day may provide herbivores with temporal en...

No PDF available ABSTRACT Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) can provide detailed information on the spatial and temporal distribution of sound producing insects. When combined with machine learning approaches for extracting data from multiple sites and multiple years, PAM can provide exceptionally detailed information about the ecology of the calli...

Significance While numerous studies have focused on the ecological factors allowing for niche differentiation and thus species coexistence, the role of differentiation in species’ sensory abilities has received less attention. We measured auditory brainstem responses from 12 bat species that make their living gleaning prey off surfaces in the rainf...

Early predator detection is a key component of the predator-prey arms race, and has driven the evolution of multiple animal hearing systems. Katydids (Insecta) have sophisticated ears, each consisting of paired tympana on each foreleg that receive sound directly externally, and internally via a narrowing ear canal through the acoustic spiracle. The...

Little is known about the distribution and ecology of the Central American woolly opossum (Caluromys derbianus) in Panamá. Therefore, the aim of this study is to update geographical data and ecological information to fill this gap. Based on examinations of museum specimens, published data and field observations, we obtained 362 records of C. derbia...

Males signalling their attractiveness to females are at risk from predators that exploit mating signals to detect and locate prey. Signalling, however, is not the only risky activity in sexual interactions: mate searching can incur risk as well. Male Neotropical pseudophylline katydids produce both acoustic and vibrational signals (tremulations). F...

The world has become a noisier place due to the increase in urbanization. Noise is generally considered an impediment, altering an animal's behavior through masking or distraction. But noise can also provide useful information about the environment. For animals that rely on natural environmental noise as an indicator of favorable foraging condition...

Filtering relevant signals from noisy sensory input is a crucial challenge for animals [1, 2]. Many bats are acoustic specialists relying on sound to find prey. They discern salient acoustic signals from irrelevant background masking noise. It has long been considered a sensory impossibility for bats to use solely echolocation for the detection of...

Background noise can have strong negative consequences for animals, reducing individual fitness by masking communication signals, impeding prey detection and increasing predation risk. While the negative impacts of noise across taxa have been well documented, the use of noise as an informational cue, providing animals with reliable information on e...

In this paper, we present a method for synchronizing high-speed audio and video recordings of bio-acoustic experiments. By embedding a random signal into the recorded video and audio data, robust synchronization of a diverse set of sensor streams can be performed without the need to keep detailed records. The synchronization can be performed using...

Animals choosing particular display sites often balance sexual and natural selection pres-sures. Here we assess how physical properties of display sites can alter this balance by influencing signal production and attractiveness of the túngara frog (Physalaemuspustulosus). Males that call from very shallow water bodies (few mm depth) benefit from re...

Bats of the family Rhinolophidae emit their echolocation calls through their nostrils and feature elaborate noseleaves shaping the directionality of the emissions. The calls of these bats consist of a long constant-frequency component preceded and/or followed by short frequency-modulated sweeps. While Rhinolophidae are known for their physiological...