EvoEtho

Bats are excellent model systems for studying communication, cognition, and social behaviour in the wild. In this project, we investigate how vocalizations develop and evolve, with a particular focus on song dialects, multimodal courtship, and the role of vocal learning. We also examine how behavioural, acoustic, and genetic variation interact across individuals, populations, and species, and we use machine learning to analyse bat song and to improve the development and scientific use of sound archives.

Our overarching goal is to understand how variation in acoustic communication relates to social behaviour, local adaptation, and genetic divergence among populations. To this end, we study song dialects and their adaptive significance in bats, as well as the learned and genetic components of their courtship behaviour.