Pipistrelle bats have a magnetic compass and calibrate it at sunset, according to a new study published in the journal Biology Letters. The research shows that these animals, like birds, are sensitive to magnetic inclination.
The soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) weighs only a few grams, but it is estimated that members of this small bat species cover thousands of kilometres every year on their nocturnal migrations from north-eastern to south-western Europe. Precisely how they find their way across such long distances in the dark remains unclear. However, an international team led by biologist Dr Oliver Lindecke from the University of Oldenburg has found evidence suggesting that a magnetic sense may play a role in the bats’ navigation. In behavioural experiments, the team discovered that two different components of the Earth’s magnetic field influence the animals’ orientation. The study has now been published in the scientific journal Biology Letters.
Lindecke has already been studying the migratory behaviour of the small mammals for ten years. “Unlike with birds, so far there has been very little research into the magnetoreception of mammals that migrate over long distances,” he explained. Together with earlier findings, the results of the current study indicate that soprano pipistrelles have a magnetic compass which they calibrate at sunset.
Read more at University of Oldenburg
Photo Credit: Gilles San Martin via Wikimedia Commons
