雄性体型较大的囊翼蝙蝠（大银线蝠）会使用一首歌曲来吸引异性，并用另一首歌来保卫自己的领地。
它们也会通过发出声音来寻找食物——昆虫飞时会发出跳动的声波，这种行为也就是我们通常所说的回声定位能力。
但是，研究人员尚不清楚这些声音是否也能传播一些社会讯息，就像人们能够从一个人的声音推断出他（她）的性别一样，即使他或她只是买了一大杯加入无糖香草浆的拿铁咖啡。
为此，科学家捕获了几只蝙蝠，通过测量它们的前肢，判定其性别，并将微小的塑料带固定到它们身上。
之后，科学家放飞了它们，并记录下了它们的叫声。通过研究，科学家发现，雌性蝙蝠的回声定位声波比生活在附近的雄性蝙蝠偏高和短，虽然雌性蝙蝠的体型更大。另外，来自不同地区的蝙蝠叫声也不尽相同。
该研究小组将相关研究成果在线发表于英国《皇家学会学报B》上。
此外，研究人员还在一个巢穴附近释放了单个的雄性蝙蝠和雌性蝙蝠，而此时这个巢穴的雄性蝙蝠已经回巢。科学家发现，当一只雄性蝙蝠降落时，其他雄性蝙蝠会发出嚎叫声，并唱起领地歌谣。但当一只雌性蝙蝠飞来时，雄性蝙蝠会唱起求爱歌谣。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1995
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Bat echolocation calls facilitate social communication
Mirjam Knornschild, Kirsten Jung, Martina Nagy, Markus Metz and Elisabeth Kalko
Bat echolocation is primarily used for orientation and foraging but also holds great potential for social communication. The communicative function of echolocation calls is still largely unstudied, especially in the wild. Eavesdropping on vocal signatures encoding social information in echolocation calls has not, to our knowledge, been studied in free-living bats so far. We analysed echolocation calls of the polygynous bat Saccopteryx bilineata and found pronounced vocal signatures encoding sex and individual identity. We showed experimentally that free-living males discriminate approaching male and female conspecifics solely based on their echolocation calls. Males always produced aggressive vocalizations when hearing male echolocation calls and courtship vocalizations when hearing female echolocation calls; hence, they responded with complex social vocalizations in the appropriate social context. Our study demonstrates that social information encoded in bat echolocation calls plays a crucial and hitherto underestimated role for eavesdropping conspecifics and thus facilitates social communication in a highly mobile nocturnal mammal.
