Wildlife Activities
Research and Monitoring - Bat Capture Surveys
Bat Capture Surveys
Capture surveys are mainly focused on the habitat creation areas, though some capture surveys are being conducted in conjunction with the system-wide acoustic surveys. Capture surveys are conducted in addition to acoustic surveys because additional information like age, sex and reproductive status can be collected. Netting within the habitat creation areas also enables researchers to better understand how they use the sites. Depending on how and where the nets are set within a site can help make modifications that allow bats to better utilize these sites. Capture surveys are conducted using three mist-nets stacked on top of each other and attached to poles with a pulley system that reaches over 25 ft (7.6 m) into the canopy to better sample bats foraging within the site. When bats are captured, they are identified by species, sex, age, and reproductive status. When bats are released, reference echolocation calls are collected using a bat detector which will add to the known call library being used to identify calls for acoustic monitoring.
For additional information on this project, please refer to Work Task F4: Post-Development Monitoring of Covered Bat Species. Find Technical Reports for this Work Task here.
Updated October 14, 2011