CORRELATION BETWEEN ECHOLOCATION CALL FREQUENCY AND MORPHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENTS IN HORSESHOE BATS (MAMMALIA, CHIROPTERA, RHINOLOPHIDAE) OF VIETNAM

Abstract

Rhinolophidae (horseshoe bats) is one of the most diverse bat families in Vietnam. However, integrated data on both echolocation and morphological measurements of these bat species from the country is still limitted. This study was conducted to (1) investigate the relationship between CF values and external morphological measurements, including forearm length (FA), head and body length (HB), ear length (EL) and anterior nose-leaf width (ANW) of horseshoe bat species in Vietnam; (2) determine which morphological measurement could better predict the CF values of these bat species. Linear regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between CF values and external measurements based on data collected from 110 individuals of 15 horseshoe bat species. Our results showed significant negatively correlations between CF values and all of the four studied external measurements. The correlation coefficient values gradually reduced in order of correlation between CF with EL (r = -0.831), ANW (r = -0.771), FA (r = -0.554), HB (r = -0.444). With higher correlation coefficient values, EL and ANW can be used to predict the CF values better than those of either FA or HB.