Infant-directed speech is a variety of language that is preferably used over infants and toddlers. Bat mothers also change the sound of their vocalizations, depending on whether they are aimed at young animals or adults, as was recently demonstrated in the greater sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata). In these socially living animals with their complex sound communication, this behavior may have a similar function as in humans, say the authors of the study, Ahana A. Fernandez and Mirjam Knörnschild from the Berlin Museum of Natural History.
The paper was published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00265.
Click herefor the press release of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin .
Photo: Saccopteryx bilineata Mother and young animal (Photo: Michael Stifter)