 "Photo: Courtesy Photo")
Mexican free-tailed bats, like those under the Kyle Field bleachers, have been found to be one of the rare mammals that have structured communication ¬- mating songs that follow syntax, much like language follows rules of grammar.
Researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin combined findings to publish a paper in the "PloS ONE," an online journal of the Public Library of Science.
"We've known for awhile that they sang, but we just published the first full paper on their songs - how they're organized; they're extremely structured. We always put a noun before a verb - it's the same idea," said Kirsten Bohn, A&M postdoctoral researcher, specializing in animal communication and behavior. "Most mammals don't make really intricate and structured vocalizations; [Mexican free-tailed bats] sound like a song - there's a rhythm to them."
Bats from Kyle Field and under the Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin were studied.
"[Kyle Field] is so big that it has tremendous thermal properties," said Texas A&M assistant biology professor Michael Smotherman, "so it stays pretty warm at night and cool during the day."
Researchers of the study had known since 2003 that Mexican free-tailed bats sang, but only recently were able to hear the syllables of the songs.
"It's very high frequency, so it wasn't until we had technology to record high frequency were we able to record and listen to the songs," Bohn said. "We looked at over 400 songs from 35 different bats."
The mating songs also vary from bat to bat, Bohn said.
"Mammals often have one specific song and make that same call over and over," Bohn said. "The bats don't just make the same song over and over again - there's a lot of variety within the same bat, one bat will make a lot of different songs."
Researchers were able to get a better understanding of the songs by comparing them to communication of birds, whales and primates.
"There are even fewer [animals] that have hierarchical structure - that syllables are combined in specific ways to make phrases and the phrases are combined in specific ways to make song," Bohn said. "Whale songs are pretty similar - they have specific units that are combined to make themes, and the themes are combined to make songs, but whales make the same calls over and over again."
Like birds, only male bats sing to attract females and deter other males.
"The songs says something about the quality of the male, something in his genes," Bohn said. "We don't know what that is yet; I'm currently studying that and seeing what females like in the male songs."
The discovery is groundbreaking because it can be used to help people, Bohn said.
"We're using the bat as a model for speech production and to help develop new treatments for speech productions, like stuttering and Parkinson's disease."
The bats may be a peculiar sight on game day, said The Zone manager Clint Netherland, but football fans shouldn't worry.
"On game days we have University Pest Control personnel on site to take care of any bats that could cause issues with fans enjoying the game," Netherland said.
The bats under Kyle Field are, for the most part, harmless, Bohn said.
"The incident of rabies is pretty low. Let's put it this way, we work with the bats everyday, all the time and we don't get sick," Bohn said. "They're docile; they're not vicious."
Campus is experiencing a high instance of Mexican free-tailed bats, Bohn said, but most will fly south in a couple weeks.
"There are thousands of bats - they're in Kyle Field, they're in the parking garage, they're everywhere. They came from up north; they're migrating to Mexico," Bohn said. "They don't spend the winter here."
Alex Worsham contributed to this story.
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