It turns out that bats have high intelligence that was previously thought to be unique to humans
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For a long time, cognitive abilities like remembering personal experiences and planning ahead were thought to be unique to humans, but research shows that bats also possess these abilities.
Time-mapping and future-oriented behavior in free-ranging wild fruit bats: Current Biology
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00689-4
Wild bats found to possess high cognitive abilities previously considered exclusive to humans
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-wild-high-cognitive-abilities-previously.html
Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University and his colleagues used GPS trackers to track Egyptian fruit bats that were kept free at the university's I. Meyer Seagulls Zoo to investigate how the bats gathered food.
The first question in the study was, 'Can bats recognize the passage of time?' Normally, when Egyptian fruit bats leave their colony to search for food, they fly around choosing trees that bear fruit for a long period of time and trees that bear fruit for a short period of time. Since trees that bear fruit for a short period of time lose their fruit quickly, Egyptian fruit bats visit trees that bear fruit for a long period of time almost every night, which shows that they have some understanding of the nature of the trees.
To test whether the bats could detect the decline of fruit over time, the researchers captured the bats for one to seven days and restricted them from leaving their colonies.
The researchers found that bats captured for only one day were more likely to forage in the same trees they had visited the night before, whereas bats captured for seven days were more likely to visit trees that had fruit for a long period of time. This tendency was stronger in more experienced bats.
These results suggest that the Egyptian fruit bats are aware of both the nature of the tree and the time that has passed, Yobel and his colleagues concluded.
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Yobel and his colleagues also investigated whether the Egyptian fruit bats could think about the future.
Some Egyptian fruit bats kept at the I. Meyer Seagulls Zoo leave their colony early in the evening to search for food, while others eat fruit placed in a bowl until just before they leave the colony. Since the fruit provided by humans is rich in sugar and water but low in protein, Yobel and his colleagues first hypothesized that bats that did not eat food in the colony would fly in search of juicy fruit, while bats that did eat food would visit trees in search of protein.
Yobel and his colleagues tracked 15 Egyptian fruit bats and found that bats that left the colony without eating food tended to fly to trees with fruit rich in water, as hypothesized, while bats that had eaten food tended to fly to trees with fruit rich in protein. They also found that the bats flew to specific trees they knew without looking away, and would pass by other trees and even good trees they had just visited yesterday in order to focus on their chosen target.
Yobel and his colleagues conclude that these results suggest that Egyptian fruit bats plan their foraging trips before they leave the colony, knowing exactly where they will be flying and what nutrients they will be seeking.
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