Mirjam Knörnschild's Avatar

Mirjam Knörnschild

@berlinbatlab.bsky.social

Professor of Evolutionary Ethology at HU Berlin. Department Head at Museum for Natural History. Interested in animals and their voices. Bats rock.

304 Followers  |  181 Following  |  36 Posts  |  Joined: 29.01.2025
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Posts by Mirjam Knörnschild (@berlinbatlab.bsky.social)

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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

02.03.2026 11:15 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 2
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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...

26.02.2026 19:05 — 👍 24    🔁 7    💬 0    📌 1
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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...

05.01.2026 12:53 — 👍 21    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 2

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.

22.12.2025 20:35 — 👍 14    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 0
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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...

13.12.2025 11:04 — 👍 12    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 1

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...

24.11.2025 09:27 — 👍 17    🔁 16    💬 0    📌 0
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What enables human language? A biocultural framework Explaining the origins of language is a key challenge in understanding ourselves as a species. We present an empirical framework that draws on synergies across fields to facilitate robust studies of l...

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

23.11.2025 11:52 — 👍 207    🔁 86    💬 6    📌 10
Meerkat pups in the Kalahari, South Africa

Meerkat pups in the Kalahari, South Africa

Rhesus macaques in Cayo Santiago

Rhesus macaques in Cayo Santiago

Dwarf mongoose staring at a camera, South Africa.

Dwarf mongoose staring at a camera, South Africa.

📢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

21.11.2025 16:48 — 👍 41    🔁 51    💬 0    📌 2
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Rats wage war on bats in stunning new footage New videos reveal the surprising dynamics of bat-rat relationships—and suggest how human activity is fueling these interspecies conflicts.

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...

07.11.2025 13:21 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 1
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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 🦇🦇🦇

31.10.2025 16:32 — 👍 26    🔁 10    💬 1    📌 1
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(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...

31.10.2025 10:09 — 👍 20    🔁 9    💬 1    📌 2
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Rats filmed snatching bats from air for first time Stunning hunting behaviour captured in German cave

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

26.10.2025 06:42 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Brown rats are preying on bats at urban hibernation sites – even snatching them mid-air. Conservation efforts must include non-native rodent control at key bat roosts.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

14.10.2025 21:13 — 👍 41    🔁 18    💬 1    📌 6
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Our latest research highlights the importance of dry grasslands for bats 🦇🦇🦇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

11.09.2025 19:11 — 👍 25    🔁 9    💬 0    📌 0
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Bats resolve conflicting sensory information for individual recognition Knörnschild et al. reveal that greater sac-winged bats can detect inconsistencies in sensory information for individual recognition. Playback experiments show that bats ignore distress calls from visi...

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...

11.09.2025 08:53 — 👍 17    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
This Geat Big Bat Loves Hugs and Snuggles | The Bat Signal
YouTube video by Dan Riskin This Geat Big Bat Loves Hugs and Snuggles | The Bat Signal

Dan Riskin from The Bat Signal made a really cool video about our recent publication.

youtube.com/@followtheba...

26.08.2025 13:40 — 👍 9    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 1
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World’s largest carnivorous bat loves to cuddle | CNN A new study found the world’s largest carnivorous bat is more social than previously thought. Commonly known as greater false vampire bats, this rare species was observed hunting and playing together ...

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!

💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇💕🦇

22.08.2025 20:02 — 👍 13    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
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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...

20.08.2025 20:24 — 👍 61    🔁 17    💬 1    📌 2
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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...

10.08.2025 22:48 — 👍 29    🔁 16    💬 0    📌 1
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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 🦇🦇🦇

28.07.2025 22:07 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

It’s exactly the same here in Germany… and in the future, heat may be as dangerous to bat pups as cold. Or more. I’ll keep you posted!

04.07.2025 16:47 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Awesome 🦇♥️🦇

04.07.2025 14:30 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Bats are underrated.

03.07.2025 20:06 — 👍 122    🔁 27    💬 8    📌 9

This is awesome 💕🦇💕

04.07.2025 14:30 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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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.

04.07.2025 13:22 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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Acoustic romance in old church attics: Greater mouse-eared bats display lek mating system In the darkness of old church attics, surprisingly romantic scenes take place as male greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis), the largest native bat species in Europe, compete for the attention of f...

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

24.06.2025 06:09 — 👍 18    🔁 6    💬 0    📌 2
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Hammer Speech Last night, I got to stand up in front of the audience at the Locus Awards ceremony. I wound up presenting the Locus Award for Best Short Story (congratulations, Isabel J. Kim!) – but first, I deliver...

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/

22.06.2025 18:59 — 👍 411    🔁 166    💬 18    📌 55

Thank you for this

22.06.2025 22:44 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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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....

18.06.2025 15:25 — 👍 9    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1
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Can AI help us talk to dolphins? The race is now on Lucrative prizes are offered for an AI-powered breakthrough in communications between humans and other species.

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

21.05.2025 11:54 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0