Some Baby Bats Babble Like Human Infants, Scientists Find
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Established 1961 11 Monday, August 23, 2021 Lifestyle Features Some baby bats babble like human infants, scientists find uman babies are not the only babblers, said a study pub- Picture shows the Sufi mosque in Tripoli’s coastal city of Zliten, 150 kilometers east of the Libyan Hlished Thursday, some bats capital, which is also a zawiya-an Arabic term for a Sufi institute offering religious education and are also very talkative in their free accommodation to travellers-also includes boarding school and a university. — AFP photos Sufi mosque in Tripoli’s coastal city of Zliten. infancy and even make sounds that recall the googoo-gagas of our own tots. Babbling in human chil- dren is key to developing the care- ful control over the vocal apparatus necessary for speech. The study published in the journal Science indicates the same is true for the greater sac-winged bat, or Saccopteryx bilineata, native to Central America. “Human infants seem to babble ullet holes scar the minaret of the the zawiyas to regain their autonomy,” he on the one hand to interact with Sufi mosque in Libya’s Zliten, but fol- added. their caregivers, but they also do Blowers of the Muslim mystical tradi- After Gaddafi’s overthrow in 2011, that when they’re completely tion are working to renovate and preserve another danger emerged. The attack in alone, seemingly happily just their heritage. A handful of students sit Zliten, on the Mediterranean coast east of exploring their voice, and that’s the cross-legged on the floor of the mosque in Tripoli, was echoed across the country. same what our bats are doing,” the Asmariya zawiya, transcribing on wood- Islamist militants used diggers and pneu- study co-author Mirjam en tablets as their teacher chants Quranic matic drills to destroy numerous Sufi sites Knornschild, behavioral ecologist verses. Elsewhere in the complex, named across Libya-attacks echoed in Iraq, at the Museum of Natural History for its 16th-century founder Abdessalam Al- Pakistan and elsewhere. Zirkhani says the in Berlin, told AFP. Bats communi- Asmar, scholars pore over old manuscripts people who attacked the complex in Zliten cate by ultrasound, sound waves on theology and Islamic law. The zawiya-an were “extremists known to the state”. at frequencies above human hear- Arabic term for a Sufi institute offering a But in the chaos of post-revolt Libya, ing, but they can also make space for religious gatherings, Quranic they have never been held to account. sounds audible to people. “It education and free accommodation to trav- The zawiya has also suffered from a lack sounds like a high pitched twitter- ellers-also includes a boarding school and Muslim men praying at the Sufi mosque. of funds as it seeks to rebuild and restore ing to our ears... it’s melodic,” said a university. its treasures. Zirkhani showed AFP dusty Knornschild, who has worked with Historian Fathi Al-Zirkhani says the site old manuscripts he wants to preserve for bats since 2003. is the Libyan equivalent of Cairo’s presti- damaging Asmar’s tomb. But today, crafts- ‘Fear and mistrust’ posterity. “We have neither the means nor Saccopteryx bilineata don’t hide gious Al-Azhar University, a global authority men are busily restoring terracotta tiles and When the call to prayer rings out, all rise the know-how to restore them,” Zirkhani away in gloomy caves, but prefer in Sunni Islam. But despite Sufism’s long repairing damage caused by the extrem- and head through an arcaded courtyard to said. “We need help from (UN cultural to live in trees, making them easier history across North Africa, Libya’s plunge ists. The tomb is surrounded by scaffolding the mosque for noon prayers. It is a scene agency) UNESCO and European institu- to observe. The babbling of 20 into chaos after dictator Muammar Gaddafi but still bears its green silk cover, delicately repeated daily for hundreds of years, but tions.” But there are some signs of hope baby bats was recorded in Costa was ousted in a 2011 revolt gave a free embroidered with gold. The zawiya hosts the zawiya has had a turbulent few for Sufis in Libya. The zawiya was closed Rica and Panama between 2015 hand to militias. They included hardline several hundred students, including many decades. Gaddafi, who ruled Libya with an for six years following the 2012 attack. and 2016 by researcher Ahana Islamists, who are deeply hostile to Sufi from overseas, who enjoy free food and iron fist for four decades after seizing power But in 2018 it discreetly reopened, and Fernandez, also affiliated with the “heretics” and their mystical nighttime cere- lodging. “I came to Libya to learn Koran in a 1969 coup, was suspicious of the Sufis have been able to exercise their Museum of Natural History in monies aimed at coming closer to the here,” said Thai student, Abderrahim bin Sufis. customs more publicly. Last October in Berlin, who spent hours with the divine. “(Previously) dormant ideological Ismail, in faltering Arabic. “He infiltrated the zawiya with his secret Tripoli, they took to the streets of the old bats in the forest. currents, with backing from abroad, took Houssein Abdellah Aoch, a 17-year-old services, creating a climate of fear and mis- city to celebrate the birthday of the advantage of the security vacuum to attack from Chad wearing a long blue tunic, said trust,” said an employee, who asked to Prophet Mohammed(PBUH)-a festival Up to 43 minutes the zawiyas,” Zirkhani said. he was working hard to commit verses to remain anonymous. “Gaddafi chose to frowned upon by more austere currents of The mammals, like us, have a In August 2012, dozens of Islamist mili- memory. “I’m hoping to memorize the entire divide the Sufis to control them better.” But Islam. — AFP larynx, and start babbling about tants raided the site, blowing up part of the Quran then go home and become a reli- Gaddafi’s authorities “loosened the stran- three weeks after birth, for about 7 sanctuary, stealing or burning books and gious teacher,” he said. glehold in the mid-1990s, which allowed to 10 weeks-until they are weaned. During this period, the bats spend around 30 percent of their days babbling, with sessions lasting on average about seven minutes, the researchers calculated. But one bat babbled for a full 43 minutes, a long stretch considering adult com- munication generally lasts but a few seconds. “That’s something really, really peculiar that the other bat species that have been studied to date simply don’t do,” said Knornschild. “They’re very chatty.” The vocalizations were con- verted into images, called spectro- Sufi mosque in Tripoli’s coastal city of Zliten. Picture shows a man inside the Sufi mosque in Tripoli’s Historian Fathi Salem Muhammad Al-Zarkhani stands near old manu- grams. “Each syllable has a very coastal city of Zliten. scripts at the Sufi mosque. specific shape, so to say, and they are easy to distinguish by eye,” Knornschild added. The Sport hunting-which attracts amateurs euros ($13 million), Tanczos told AFP. ary. Last month, Bucharest adopted a researchers analyzed more than from all over the world in search of a “tro- Authorities say figures from the 1990s of decree giving local authorities the right to 55,000 produced syllables, finding Census could be phy”-has been banned since 2016. But in a more than 6,000 brown bears spread permit nuisance bear shootings, speeding universal characteristics of bab- recent controversial case, environmental- across some 30 percent of the country, up a laborious process that could take bling in human infants in the bats, blessing or bane for ists accuse a Liechtenstein prince of killing especially in the Carpathians, are underes- weeks. such as repetition, lack of mean- a brown bear, named Arthur, on a March timated. Now, in a matter of hours, aggressive ing, but also that the sounds fol- hunt in the Carpathian Mountains-using a Whereas the methodology used so far- bears could become a legal target-a move lowed a certain rhythm. On top of Romania’s bears permit to shoot a female bear seen as a counting tracks in mud and snow-is unreli- widely condemned by activists. “A mas- that, like with humans, the learn- nuisance to residents. Activists say the 17- able, the collection of droppings and hair sacre is being prepared against these often ing curve is not linear. Out of 25 year-old bear was the country’s largest, will make it possible to create a database of starving animals, which are victims of log- syllables in the adult repertoire, omania will soon conduct a census of observed for years in the area. Yet while samples, each one duly stamped with a ging, the destruction of their habitat and an young bats have not yet mastered its protected brown bears using DNA the hunting ban loophole may be abused, barcode, according to the minister. The pro- attempt at demonization by groups of all of them by the time they are Rfor the first time, with tensions raised residents are also fed up with rampant bear cedure can provide a wealth of information, hunters,” the Brigitte Bardot Foundation weaned, suggesting that they con- between villagers fearing further attacks attacks-and want protection. including an animal’s sex and family ties, said in a letter to Romania’s president. tinue to learn. and conservationists warning against loos- says Robin Rigg, president of the Slovak Tanczos has dismissed such accusa- er hunting laws. Incidents with hungry ‘Villagers frightened’ Wildlife Society, who has used the same tions as “unfounded”, saying that the first Song bears descending into villages have Last month, a bear killed a shepherd methodology to count wolves.