Voice and Reaction to Sound

A slight "clacking" emitted during flight has been noted for Mystacina. Stead (1937) mentions the shrill squeaking of Mystacina when handled, and Grubner (personal communication) describes ear twitching as a reaction to light scratching or high pitched sounds. He describes the reaction of this bat to radio static as "panic", and describes a behaviour pattern before flight in which the animal "opened its mouth and turned its head from side to side". This latter would facilitate echo-orientation. Phillipps (Dominion Museum file) records a high pitched squeak and a low grunt from a colony of Chalinolobus.