Mirjam Knörnschild

New bat species for Europe! doi.org/10.1016/j.ge... Many thanks to @piotr-naskrecki.bsky.social for the stunning photos of Nycteris thebaica, taken in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.

In our new study, playback experiments revealed sex-specific responses to the same social calls produced during foraging: female nectar-feeding bats were attracted, while males avoided them. Receivers matter! doi.org/10.1111/nyas... Thanks to @ralsimon.bsky.social for the beautiful video!

Hot off the press! The Social Lives of Bats: From Roosting Rituals to Dinner Dates pelagicpublishing.com/products/the...

Where did bats come from?🦇🌍 After decades of debate, the biggest bat genome + fossil study ever done has an answer - and it’s not where anyone expected! 🤩OUR PHASE 1 FLAGSHIP is out today in nature! doi.org/10.1038/s415... A thread 🧵

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our new study suggests that bats originated in Europe around 65 million years ago and revises our understanding of how several major bat groups are related. Proud to be part of the international Bat1K team behind this work. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

What would it take for AI to decode animal communication? In our new opinion piece, we argue that animal signals should not be understood only by how similar they sound, but by how the receiver perceives them. 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

Check out our new paper! 🔗 nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New tool to estimate diversity error in bat acoustic surveys Sonotypes are often used in bat acoustic surveys — but how much diversity error do they introduce? We provide a free tool to estimate α- and β-diversity error. r-fornaro.github.io//SonotypeDiv... www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

2nd Coller Dolittle Challenge Awards This year’s Award Ceremony takes place on 25 June 2026. I’m pleased to be serving on the judging committee and look forward to hearing directly from the finalists as they present their exciting research. 👉 Register here to join us: zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Very happy to see this officially out in the world. Congratulations again, Danilo — this is a fantastic and well-deserved recognition of your work. We at the Museum für Naturkunde are delighted that this award will further strengthen our collaboration. www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/museum/se...

Really enjoyed being a guest on the Acoustic World Podcast and talking with Marco Maiolini about bat communication. Acoustic World brings together scholars across disciplines to explore how animals produce, use, and experience sound. open.spotify.com/episode/2A93...

New paper alert: >80k nacelle-height recordings and stereo-thermal 3D tracks show that bats sing in the rotor-swept zone and circle turbine nacelles. We need smarter, species-sensitive curtailment that aligns both climate and biodiversity goals. #Bats #Conservation 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Male bats have a lot to say – and every voice is unique! 🦇 A new study reveals 14 distinct call types in male greater mouse-eared bats, allowing us to distinguish individuals acoustically and helping to better protect their mating roosts. 🌍 🔗 bit.ly/fighting-and... @berlinbatlab.bsky.social

Coming soon! The Social Lives of Bats edited by Christina R. Stanley 🦇 This ground-breaking book offers unique insights into bat society and relationships, from familial bonds, to friendship, group dynamics and even altruism. Learn more and preorder your copy ➡️ https://tinyurl.com/c97wpk7e

New study alert! Female Daubenton’s bats foraging at the cold edge of their range take turns using the same feeding spots at different times of night, thus reducing competition and helping them cope with the cold. Read the full story here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New study alert! Sexually selected vocalizations of Greater Mouse-Eared Bats We recorded male Myotis myotis in mating roosts and found complex vocalizations with an individual signature and pronounced seasonal variation. Check it out! 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Had fun with this one! In which I discuss: dolphins, elephants, marmosets, teknonymy, necronymy, reciprocal names in New Guinea, nominative determinism, the Bob-Kirk effect, the face-name-matching effect, name signs, toponyms, dog names, name uniqueness, alexinomia, toponyms, name taboos, etc.

Our new study shows that cats’ purrs are more individually distinct than their meows and suggests that domestication has made the meows of cats more variable than those of cheetah, cougar & Co. Check it out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Come and work with us in our new home @bristolbiosci.bsky.social ! This fully funded PhD opportunity is open to anyone interested in spiders/eyes/light pollution/evolution/development! 🕷️👀 ⏰Deadline 15th December, online info event TODAY @2pm! Link in the PhD advert👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Origins of language, one of humanity’s most distinctive traits, may be best explained as a unique convergence of multiple capacities each with its own evolutionary history, involving intertwined roles of biology & culture. This framing can expand research horizons. A 🧵 on our @science.org paper.🧪1/n

📢Two fully-funded #PhD opportunities to work with us: Topic: Social monitoring & manipulation UK-domiciled black-heritage scheme: tinyurl.com/aja54nr6 NERC DLTP: tinyurl.com/4jfy47pp Cosupervisors: #PatrickKennedy @ljnbrent.bsky.social @bristolbiosci.bsky.social #bioacoustics #mammals #fieldwork

More cool rats vs. bat content from both my lab and the Yovel Lab in this National Geographic article. I'm glad to report that cosmic justice has been achieved... and the bats won :-) www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...

Remember… Bats aren’t spooky, they’re adorable 💕Here, an Ectophylla alba pup chilling under a leaf tent gets a surprise visit… from a katydid. Happy Halloween 🦇🦇🦇

(Not so) Happy Halloween! 🦇🐀🎃 Researchers from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin documented brown rats catching #bats in mid-air at Segeberger Kalkberg, Northern Germany. A rare look at invasive species impacting urban wildlife. 🌍 @berlinbatlab.bsky.social 🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

Our latest research highlights the importance of dry grasslands for bats 🦇🦇🦇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This morning @dzg2025berlin.bsky.social, Mirjam Knörnschild gave a fantastic talk about social communication in Saccopteryx bilineata 🦇 including dialects, acoustically-based individual recognition. @berlinbatlab.bsky.social #dzg2025 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Dan Riskin from The Bat Signal made a really cool video about our recent publication. youtube.com/@followtheba...

Our recent study on cooperation in spectral bats is featured on CNN. This is the first publication of my PhD student Marisa Tietge - way to go! 💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇

New publication from my lab: Vampyrum spectrum, the Neotropics' largest carnivorous bat, is very cooperative. These gentle apex predators regularly provide prey for family member – documented in the wild for the first time. doi.org/10.1371/jour...

New paper out! We found that in pipistrelle bats, social vocalizations carry a stronger phylogenetic signal than echolocation calls, suggesting the former evolve more slowly, while the latter remains flexible and shaped by the environment. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In the field in Abruzzo National Park, watching Daubenton’s bats hunt over water at night. Excited to co-supervise Chiara Belli’s PhD together with Danilo Russo from the Animal Ecology and Evolution Lab in Italy. Chiara studies altitudinal segregation in bats and how climate change affects it 🦇🦇🦇

Bats are underrated.

Danilo Russo and I have received a grant from MfN Berlin to study how climate change affects bat pup survival. As Southern Europe swelters under record-breaking temperatures, we are investigating how extreme heat turns safe roosts into death traps – and how to prevent that.

2025. Acoustic romance in old church attics: Greater mouse-eared bats display lek mating system phys.org/news/2025-06...

Last night, I had the privilege of delivering a keynote speech at the Locus awards. You can view the speech and read the full text here. stone-soup.ghost.io/hammer-speech/

Behavioral ecology can inform conservation – and male bats must be part of the picture! Mating roosts are vital for reproduction, so they should receive the same protection as nursery roosts. Plus, males yodel there...😅 nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

www.science.org/content/arti...

Our latest paper just came out. We found that more social parrots have a better vocabulary and females produce more variable call types than males. You can read more here: doi.org/10.1098/rsos.... (PS: the bird in the picture is not a parrot but the cover of RSOS.)

Folks, Sara Niksic / Inner Child is fundraising for the next iteration of her phenomenal whale song/music science communication project - please consider a small donation to help make this happen 🎶🦑🐋 whydonate.com/en/fundraisi...

“[This]finding challenges the notion of a strictly human-specific Arcuate Fasciculus morphology and suggests that language-related neural specialisation in humans likely evolved through gradual evolutionary strengthening of a pre-existing connection, rather than arising de novo” 🧪🧠 👇

The inaugural Coller-Dolittle Prize was awarded to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, scientists Laela Sayigh, Vincent Janik, Frants Jensen, and Peter Tyack, for their long-term field research on dolphin whistle communication. Kudos to the whole team! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Ever wondered how baby bats learn to sing? 🦇🎶 Turns out, their moms support their practice! Our study shows that maternal feedback leads to: More vocal practice Higher song syllable versatility More mature song syllables 🔗https://elifesciences.org/articles/99474 elifesciences.org/digests/9947...

eLife wrote a beautiful dispatch about our study on maternal influences on vocal development in bat pups. Check it out! elifesciences.org/digests/9947...

Mother Bats Shape Their Pups’ Voices Vocal learning isn’t just about listening—it’s about interactions! Mother bats play a key role in shaping how their pups learn to communicate, showing how important early-life interactions are. doi.org/10.7554/eLif... @eLife.bsky.social @ahanaaurora.bsky.social