British Bat Calls

Knowledge of bat echolocation, calls and identification using bat detectors and programs such as BatSound has grown significantly in the last decade. In this practical guide Jon Russ and contributors (Kate Barlow, Philip Briggs & Sandie Sowler) present the latest data in a clear and concise manner.

British Bat Calls covers topics such as the properties of sound; how bats use sound; bat detection methods; recording devices; analysis software; recording techniques and call analysis. For each species found in the British Isles, information is given on distribution; emergence times; flight and foraging behaviour; habitat; and echolocation including parameters for common measurements. Calls are described in the context of the different technologies used (heterodyne, frequency division and time expansion). Various spectrograms are displayed for each species using examples from both BatSound and AnaLook. An echolocation key is included with British Bat Calls.

1. Introduction

2. Bats and sound
2.1 Properties of sound
2.2 Signal acquisition
2.3 Representing and describing sound
2.4 How bats use sound

3. Equipment
3.1 Bat detectors
3.2 Recording sound

4. Call analysis
4.1 Sound analysis software
4.2 Automatic recognition software
4.3 Using sound analysis software
4.4 Measuring call parameters
4.5 AnalookW
4.6 Common analysis problems

5. Species echolocation guide

6. Species identification

Bibliography
Index