Bat Mothers' Hearts Beat Faster when They Hear Their Pups

Mother bats' hearts beat faster at the sound of their own babies' cries

A mother bat has one crucial challenge: find her own babies among hundreds of other bats in the colony. Making sure she cares for and nurses only her own offspring is important to ensuring their survival. Among Japanese house bats, mothers keep track of their pups using the babies' isolation calls.

Bat mothers' hearts beat faster when they hear their pups

They can even pick out their offspring’s distress cries amongst thousands of bats.

Mother bats show strongest heart rate surges to their own pups' calls

When mother Japanese house bats heard recordings of their own offspring, their hearts beat measurably faster — and the response persisted even as the pups grew and their calls changed shape, according to new research by Kazuki Yoshino-Hashizawa and colleagues

Mother bats’ hearts beat faster at the sound of their own babies’ cries

Japanese house bats’ heart rates respond strongly to the sound of their own pups’ cries, but not to the cries of other pups of the same age