Birders,
For anyone interested in their local bat fauna I'd recommend 3 steps:
1- Join the Australasian Bat Society. Its cheap ($40 I think- less than a tank
of fuel), they are doing groundbreaking research but are also really committed
to PR for bats (boy do they have their work cut out!). The ABS have an
excellent forum where its easy to connect with bat-people: I have found the
experts in the bat world to be amazingly friendly and approachable. There is
none of petty jealousy, backbiting and elitist posing which blights certain
other wildlife pursuits I could name. There are a lot of people involved in bat
work in Victoria so Paul you will make plenty of new friends who will be keen
to lend you a hand. See http://ausbats.org.au/
2- Search for bat records from your area on the 'Atlas of Living Australia'.
This is an amazing searchable database of fauna records which is easy to use
and is growing all the time. I have been using it for mollusc twitching here in
SW WA and I am just staggered by the detail available. Its not comprehensive
yet, but it is evolving at a rate of knots. http://www.ala.org.au/
3- Get a bat detector. These devices are frankly sensational fun. They use a
variety of methods they convert ultrasound into noise you can hear (or see in
the case of the fancy-pants models). There is no need to buy one of the
multi-thousand dollar models used for high-end research (although the price and
user-friendliness of those is dropping fast so watch this space). I started out
with a simple heterodyne detector (a Magenta Bat4- I still use it on fieldwork)
which I picked up for less than $100. Using these cheaper machines for ID is
harder in Australia than Europe but is certainly not impossible. Like bird
song, bats species have certain sound-patterns and frequencies they use
regularly so you can often figure out what you are listening to with a bit of
practice. Terrific fun!
Getting 'into' bats is a fantastic journey which I would strongly recommend to
anyone. There is so much to learn about this fascinating (and sometimes
vilified) creatures- you will not regret it!
Mark Carter
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