Table 1.

Literature values for acoustic call parameters and foraging ecology of the five bat species used in this study, and their classification as similar/dissimilar relative to the focal species M. capaccinii. Also, see Fig. 1 for exemplary call spectrograms

Start frequency: frequency at the start of the call = highest call frequency. Peak frequency: frequency of maximum energy. End frequency: frequency at the end of the call = lowest call frequency. Note that exact definitions and methods for measurements may differ between studies. Classification: indicates similarity (+) and dissimilarity (−) in acoustic call structure (A) and foraging ecology (F) relative to the focal species M. capaccinii. To reduce potential bias due to different call analysis methods, we only used studies that compared echolocation calls of multiple European bat species:

[1] Obrist et al. 2004

[2] Parsons and Jones 2000

[3] Russo and Jones 2002

[4] Vaughan et al. 1997

[5] Walters et al. 2012

[6] Dietz et al., 2009

FM frequency-modulated, i.e. call frequency changes over time; QCF quasi-constant-frequency, i.e. call frequency does not change much over time (i.e. is quasi-constant). A FM/QCF call starts with a frequency-modulated part and ends with an almost constant-frequency part