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Guelph Bat Watch

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In southwestern Ontario, there is currently very limited information regarding records, species richness and abundance of bats. Most of the current records are of dead/injured bats found grounded, just like the bat Conker we found in June 2020.

Out of the eight bat species in Ontario, five have previously been reported within the City of Guelph (southwestern Ontario, red square on map below), namely little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus), silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans), eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) and the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus).

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To collect much needed data to better understand the bat species which call Guelph home, we have established a project on iNaturalist, to collate and add sightings of bats from the City of Guelph. To collect the data, we are planning to survey a number of sites across Guelph in the summer and fall of 2020, using the smartphone acoustic device 'Echo Meter Touch 2' from Wildlife Acoustics. This device enables us to detect, record and identify bat species using the associated phone app.   

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Species ID: Big Brown Bat

Species ID: Hoary Bat

Waveform

Frequency (kHz)

Spectrogram

Time scale (milliseconds)

Want to get involved with collecting vital bat acoustic data in Guelph? Get in touch via our Contact Us page for more information

 

*DISCLAIMER: Ability to follow physical distancing guidelines and the wearing of face masks will be required for all volunteers*

MNRF registration no. : M-102-6370143847

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