This is scientific Americans 60 second science. I'm Karen Hopkins.

That are sophisticated communicators and not just when they're in vampire form.

I am Dracula. New research finds that Egyptian fruit bats actually

have regional dialects, depending on the bat chatter that surrounds them as they grow up.

The studies in the journal Plus biology.

Among humans, one person's...

How doe!

Is another ones?

Can I?

While populations of bats also display group-specific vocalizations.

But how do these vocal characteristics arise?

Do they reflect innate genetic differences or are they learned?

And if that accents are acquired,

who are these furry flyers imitating?

Their parents or their roost mates?

To find out,

Yossi Yevall, at Tel Aviv University at his colleagues captured 15 pregnant fruit bats

and divided them into three groups, each of which was housed in its own separate box.

The mothers gave birth inside these boxes, their babies, called pups, live there for a full year.

During that time, the researchers exposed the pups to a select symphony of bats sounds.

Fruit bats in the wild are reared in colonies

that contain dozens to thousands of individuals, so they're used to being

...