Evaluating the Contribution Acoustic Monitors Have in Predicting Bat Mist Netting Success

• Activity Number: 423 - Contributed Poster Presentations: Survey Research Methods Section
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 30, 2019 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): I'Yanna Scott* and Patrick Zollner and Nerisa Taua and Cheyenne Gerdes and Laura D'Acunto
• Companies: and Purdue University and Purdue University and Purdue University and Purdue University
• Keywords: Myotis sodalis; acoustic monitor; mist-netting; Eptesicus fuscus

Abstract

Ecologists need better tools to understand the ecology of threatened and endangered bat populations that provide critical ecosystem services for humans. We determined whether acoustic monitoring results can predict capture success during mist-netting. Focusing on 3 bat species (big brown bat [Eptesicus fuscus], eastern red bat [Lasiurus borealis], and Indiana bat [Myotis sodalis]), we investigated the relationship between echolocation signal detection rate and number of bats of each species captured. From May to August 2017 and 2018, we sampled 20 sites using AnaBat SD II bat detectors. Mist-netting for bats was conducted using triple-high and double-high mist-nets at sites following deployment of acoustic monitors. We identified echolocation calls to species using EchoClass v3 and kaleidoscope. We compared the detection rates for identified species calls and species mist-netted using Poisson regression models. We found a significant relationship between detection rate and number captured for Indiana bats (p = 0.0420), but not big brown or eastern red bats. These results support this as a useful technique for picking sites for some but not all bat species.