Social calls of the Serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus)
Recordings from 2024 and before & 2025
To listen to social calls of the serotine bat, you can visit the files of the following lists on Xeno Canto:
- Type A social calls of different species of bats
- Type B (roosting) social calls of multiple species of bats
- Type B (in flight) social calls of multiple species of bats
- Type C.d (high frequency FM) social calls of multiple (flying) species of bats
- Type C.i (low frequency qCF) social calls recorded in the vicinity of maternity roosts
These agonistic calls, type B social calls, were emitted by a serotine bat that was being chased by a Nathusius' pipistrelle.
Viideo footage from: Sarah Mahie
More interspecies interaction between a serotine bat and a Nathusius' pipistrelle like the previous recording was witnessed on a different occasion. About five minutes after a Nathusius' pipistrelle was emitting type D social calls (914884 and 914885), a serotine bat flew by emitting multiple agonistic calls. The Nathusius' pipistrelles had their roost nearby, so possibly another chase was happening during the time of this recording.
Date of recording: 2024-06-19 Recorded by: Olivier van Aken Audio file: 914886
Many social calls of serotine bats that are recorded from within a maternity roost are not particulary distinguishable from those produced by other species in similar settings. However, some call types both look and sound quite distinctive (Middleton et al., 2022). The following recordings of calls emitted from within a maternity roost of at least 30 individuals are examples of those distinctive calls (type A, B and type C):
Video footage from: Sander Boersma, Boaz van Die, Sarah Mahie
Video footage from: Sander Boersma, Boaz van die, Sarah Mahie
This species is not often encountered producing social calls while in flight away from the roost (Middleton et al., 2022). The following type C social calls have an upside-down U-shape, with the exception of the social call in the middle that is mainly dropping down in frequency. The latter call is very similar to the serotine bat social call recorded by U. Marckmann, figure 8.7.1 in the book Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland (Middleton et al., 2022).
Date of recording: 2024-07-24 Recorded by: Charlotte Serrarens Audio file: 923069
I reevaluated the following recording after the recordings made on 2025-05-14. The social calls in the recordings of both instances are very similar - and also very similar to the social calls recorded by Erik Korsten. Korsten recorded calls from a stationary serotine bat, presumed to have some kind of advertising function, and immediatly upon flying from the stationary perch the serotine bat emitted the social calls (Korsten 2018, Russ 2021). Stationary calling serotine bats are most recorded in August, so the month of this recording would also be fitting for this kind of behavior (Korsten 2018).
Date of recording: 2024-08-26 Recorded by: Fabienne Schwab Audio file: 936309
During one of our surveys, there was an encounter with two foraging serotine bats. They were flying back and forth through the street when one of the serotine bats suddenly emitted a series of type C high frequency FM-calls.
Date of recording: 2024-06-03 Recorded by: Hannah Floor Audio file: 911601
A new year has begun and the new season starts with field visits focussed on the swarming behavior of serotine bats, since they appear to swarm and emit stationary calls during spring as well. It was quite succesful, since the following series of social calls were recorded. These social calls are very similar to those recorded by Erik Korsten (2028). Directly after the social calls, more regular looking echolocation of at least two serotine bats become visible in the recording.
Date of recording: 2025-05-14 Recorded by: Sarah Mahie Audio file: 998717
A little later that evening, two serotine bats were seen swarming. Some social calls were recorded together with wiggly echolocation calls. A few days prior, I was present at a "difficult bat sounds" workshop and we discussed the wiggly echolocation calls of serotine bats. Multiple people have recorded these calls and they always seem to occur when at least two serotine bats are present. Perhaps they have a social function.
I must admit that the following social calls were also hard to identify at first, but the social calls in the recordings share a lot of similarities with the previous mentioned recordings. However, the lower frequency type C social calls were new to me. I learned that serotine bat can produce those too. They appear to be very similar to the calls recorded by M. van der Sijpe, figure 8.7.4 in the book Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland (Middleton et al., 2022)
Some hooked echolocation calls were also recorded! During the recording of May, the serotine bats were returning to their maternity roost.
Date of recordings: 2025-05-23 Location: Ede, Gelderland, The Netherlands
Date of recordings: 2025-04-28
Location: Ede, Gelderland, The Netherlands
Audio file: SdB17020013
These social calls were recorded during the same evening as the hooked echolocation calls of April:
Date of recordings: 2025-04-28 Location: Ede, Gelderland, The Netherlands File: SdB17020125
These social calls were recorded the evening after the hooked echolocation calls of May, inbetween serotine bats leaving the roost:
All recordings are licensed under the following Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 license and in courtesy of Sarah Mahie.
All the original video footage can be found on our Youtube channel: United by Ecology
All sonograms are screenshots of the recordings imported in the ultrasound analysis software BatExplorer 2.2 (Elekon, Switzerland).
Bibliography:
- Erik Korsten (2018). Voortplanting bij laatvliegers. Expertise-meeting Laatvlieger. Bureau Waardenburg.
- Jon Russ (2021). Bat Calls of Britain and Europe: a Guide to Species Identification. Pelagic Publishing.
- Neil Middleton, Andrew Froud and Keith French (2022). Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland (second edition). Pelagic Publishing.
Create Your Own Website With JouwWeb