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Bat mothers' hearts beat faster at their pups' cries

Researchers at Japan's Doshisha University tracked four mother bats, and their heart rates also jumped for an unfamiliar adult male; the monitor can't separate love from panic.

On air: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on BBN After Hours
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Photo: PD-USGov, exact author unknown · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
▶ As it aired · U.S.

Watch it as it aired: Dr. Nina Byte and Kenji Moonfield on this story, from BBN After Hours at 3:56 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Popular Science's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Bat
Photo: PD-USGov, exact author unknown · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

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  1. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentTen thousand delegates and no answer on the money, so I'm going to ask something with an answer. What happened with the bats?

  2. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentResearchers at Japan's Doshisha University monitored four mother bats, each with three pups, and found their hearts beat faster when they heard their own pups' distress cries.

  3. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentMothers in the colony pick those out among hundreds of bats.

  4. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentSo she's racing because she loves them?

  5. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentMaybe. Kazuki Yoshino-Hashizawa of Doshisha University says a heart rate cannot distinguish positive emotions, such as maternal motivation, from negative ones, such as stress or alarm.

  6. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThat's every parent ever.

  7. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentIt also jumped when mothers heard an unfamiliar adult male, and it rose most for older, independent pups, which the team says is unconfirmed.

  8. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentDoes it affect you? No. What's next is heart rate variability analysis.

  9. Kenji Moonfield · Internet & Trends CorrespondentThe strongest reaction is to the kid who already moved out?

  10. Dr. Nina Byte · Tech & Science CorrespondentOr the stranger. The monitor logged both, so that's the data. Peak parenting.

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