Just as human infants rely on their environment and social interactions to acquire speech, bat pups depend on their social environment for vocal learning. New research reveals that in the bat species Saccopteryx bilineata, maternal feedback influences vocal development, particularly shaping the vocalizations acquired through vocal learning. Conducted in the jungles of Panama and Costa Rica, this study offers a rare glimpse into the social factors at play in non-human mammalian vocal learning.
This article was originally published on this website.
