Evaluating Acoustic Bat Surveys for ESA Compliance

Target Audience:

Natural resource professionals monitoring wild bat populations or interpreting acoustic monitoring data coming in from the field.

Summary and Objectives:

This course will cover the basics of how to properly evaluate acoustic data and reports from wild bat surveys. Participants will get hands-on experience interpreting acoustic bat data and critically evaluating reports received for federal and/or state regulatory review. Field exercises also will provide hands-on experience with proper calibration and set-up of acoustic detectors in the field, data collection and analysis, species identification, and reporting.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• follow the Range-wide Indiana and Northern Long-eared Bat Summer Survey Guidelines for estimating presence/absence of bats.
• evaluate critically bat acoustic surveys and reports for scientific integrity and compliance.
• describe the advantages and disadvantages of sampling bats using acoustics.
• properly set up and utilize bat detectors to maximize detectability.
• process and analyze acoustic data.

Competencies Addressed: 

Wildlife Biology - Basic, Species Assessment - Basic, Natural Resource Management - Basic, Data Interpretation - Intermediate, Research and Statistics - Basic