The Handbook of Acoustic Bat Detection

Read our interview with the authors.

No other method of bat detection is as popular and widespread in the context of environmental assessment and voluntary work as acoustic detection; its increasing use has driven the development of a large number of sophisticated devices and analytical methods. Acoustic detection has become a standard method for establishing the presence of bats, carrying out species identification and monitoring levels of activity. The resolution, accuracy and scale with which these tasks can be carried out has risen dramatically with the availability of automated real-time recording.

Anyone who is concerned with acoustic recording will readily acknowledge that, despite the euphoria, there are unresolved questions concerning the possibilities and limits of acoustic detection. Clear definitions of how to handle the data are usually missing, for example there are no clearly described activity indices.

In response to the limited information on the underlying science of acoustic detection, the authors offer The Handbook of Acoustic Bat Detection. They provide an in-depth understanding of acoustic detection principles, study planning, data handling, properties of bat calls, manual identification of species, automatic species recognition, analysis of results, quality assurance and the background physics of sound.

This book was originally published in German in 2018. This English translation incorporates suggestions from readers and adds content that did not make it into the original German version.