Pacific Northwest Bat Call Library

This library is maintained and edited by Janet Erickson and Dr. Stephen West,

College of Forest Resources, University of Washington.

Introduction

With the recent advances in portable ultrasonic detectors and electronic equipment capable of recording and analyzing bat calls, the opportunity to study bats in their natural surroundings has drastically increased. Large areas can now be monitored for bat activity based solely on detection of their echolocation calls. Such surveys have provided information on foraging strategies, species interactions, range extensions and habitat selection.

Using ultrasonic detectors, species specific features of bat echolocation calls have been used in the field to discriminate between sympatric species or species-groups. Calls recorded in the field are compared to calls of known identity or "reference calls". Often, there are few, if any, reference calls available and these may not be from the desired geographic region. Since so few reference calls are typically available to any one researcher, variation in call characteristics within species and among geographic localities has been difficult to examine. Call characteristics may also vary within individuals as their activity or surroundings change. Species identification is difficult if not impossible without understanding the degree of variation present in natural populations.

The purpose of this reference call library is to provide a depository for and source of bat reference calls. It is hoped that this library will aid the assessment of bat echolocation call variation as well as provide researchers with a central source of reference calls to use in future analyses.

Example of an ANABAT call sequence

After calls are recorded using an appropriate ultrasonic detector, it is possible to display the call as a function of frequency and time on a computer monitor using signal processing software. Because of its general availability and popularity with bat researchers, the ANABAT software package was used to create the reference call files used in this library.

Example of an ANABAT call sequence:

If you are interested in obtaining more information regarding ANABAT and its capabilities please contact:

Titley Electronics
PO BOX 19
Ballina NSW 2478
Australia
phone/fax 066-86-6617

Reference Call retrieval

The library can be accessed via anonymous FTP or with a WWW browser like Netscape or Mosaic. If you are unfamiliar with these, contact your computer system administrator.

FTP Access:
ftp to ftp.u.washington.edu

password: your email address

type cd pub/user-supported/batcall

To download a particular file:

type get <file name >

To download all call files

bin

mget *.bin

WWW Access:
Http://staff.washington.edu/~janete/BATS/batcall.html

Note:ANABAT call files always have a file extension of three characters ending in "#". Because WWW browsers do not accept "#" in a filename, the ANABAT files in this library were renamed to end with the extension bin. To view these files with the ANABAT software after downloading, the files must be renamed so that they end in "#". To do this, at the dos prompt change the directory to the one in which the downloaded call files are contained and type ren *.bin *.00#. This will rename every file with the ending "bin" to "00#".

Library contents

To download any of the following reference calls:

Internet Explorer: RIGHT click on the file you want to download. When the menu appears, select "Save Target As...". Save the file to your computer.

Netscape: LEFT click on the file you want to download.

Eptesicus fuscus (Big brown bat) Eptesicus fuscus call #1
Date: summer 1985. Location: Oregon Coast Range. Description: mistnet trapped by Donald Thomas, Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Eptesicus fuscus call #2
Date: summer 1985. Location: Oregon Coast Range. Description: mistnet trapped by Donald Thomas, Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Eptesicus fuscus call #3
Date: summer 1985. Location: Oregon Coast Range. Description: mistnet trapped by Donald Thomas, Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Eptesicus fuscus call #4
Date: summer 1985. Location: Oregon Coast Range. Description: mistnet trapped by Donald Thomas, Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Eptesicus fuscus call #5
Date: summer 1985. Location: Oregon Coast Range. Description: mistnet trapped by Donald Thomas, Universite de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Eptesicus fuscus call #6
Date: summer 1995. Location: Teanaway, Washington. Description: mistnet trapped by Mathew Frasier, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Eptesicus fuscus call #7
Date: summer 1995. Location: Teanaway, Washington. Description: mistnet trapped by Mathew Frasier, University of Washington, Seattle WA.