Data for: "Insectivorous bats supplement echolocation with vision to hunt insects"

Description

We examined whether bats use vision to enhance sensory redundancy when orienting and hunting small insects. We equipped 21 wild common noctule bats with high-resolution sensor loggers to measure their echolocation and movements when commuting and foraging in dark and lit environments. The experiments took place in Germany during summers of 2022 and 2023. While commuting, the bats maintained consistent echolocation sampling across light levels. When tracking prey in illuminated environments, bats emitted calls less frequently and with slower decreases in call levels compared with dark conditions. We have uploaded the data in tables and code to plot the main figures of the manuscript: "Insectivorous bats supplement echolocation with vision to hunt insects" The data is uploaded in four different excel tables: 1. The two files with "Overall" in the file name includes data either per prey capture or pr 1 second commuting flights: LightCommutingOverall.xlsx LightPreycaptureOverall.xlsx timecues: the starting cue of each event. The duration of each row is 1 second both for commuting and for prey capture WingbeatFrequency: The dominant stroke frequency measured in Hz - the mean wingbeat rate of that 1 second interval meanLuxLevel: Mean lux value for each 1 second interval Bat ID: Bat ID indicate the bat individual from 1 to 21. meanWingBeatAmplitude: The mean wingbeat amplitude per 1 second segment in m/s^2 tortuosity: The tortuosity index is 0 for straightline movement and 1 for extreme circular movement. 2. The two files with "Parameters" in the name is detailed echolocation and light data per call for either commuting segments or the prey captures LightCommutingParameters.xlsx LightPreyCaptureParameters.xlsx calltimecues: Positions of each call measured in seconds into the 1 second commuting segments or prey captures. These call positions range from 0 to 1 corresponding to the length of each prey capture event of 1 second. CallInterval: Call interval of each call measured in ms. meanLuxLevel: The mean lux level per 1 second segment BatID: Bat ID indicate the bat individual from 1 to 21. TreatmentCluster: A threshold not being used Only prey capture file: TimeBeforePreyCapture: Call positions measured (in seconds) as the time from prey capture or last commuting call in 1 sec segment PreyCaptureNumber: Each prey capture event. All calls belonging to e.g. the first prey capture event has a count = 1. kMeansCluster: kmeans clustering (with 3 clusters) of call data according to the call intervals to group data into smaller segments. ApparentOutputLevel: Apparent output level (dB re 20µPa^2s). Only for the prey capture events, since for the commuting data, all calls are clipped. %% WavfilesExamples: Folder with examples of prey captures from the 10 % darkest and brightest environments.

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