Become a Bat Detective for Halloween
(text of email from batdetective.org & zooniverse.org )
Happy Halloween!
For Halloween this year why not take trip through deepest, darkest Transylvania and listen for bats? Our new Bat Detective Project invites you to do just that by listening to the calls we have from Romania and the Transylvania region. Visit http://www.batdetective.org to begin your own spooky journey.
Transylvania is a part of Romania, where the Romanian Bat Protection Association have been responsible for involving more than 100 volunteers in the collection of thousands of hours of acoustic recordings from microphones attached to cars driving over 50,000 km around some very bumpy roads! These data make up a large part of the calls in Bat Detective. For Halloween 2012 we've specially selected these sounds to be shown on the site.
Despite what you may have heard about the legend of Dracula, you will not hear any vampire bats (bats that feed on blood) in the recordings from Transylvania! In fact there are only 3 species of 'vampire' bats out of over 1200 bat species in total - with only one species known to associated with humans and they all live in South America. However, some exciting species that you might hear in the recordings include the Schreiber's bent-wing bat (Miniopterus schreibersii) which is one of most threatened species in Europe and the European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis) which might possibly be one of the smelliest!
Good luck on your trip!
Rob and the Zooniverse Team
Happy Halloween!
For Halloween this year why not take trip through deepest, darkest Transylvania and listen for bats? Our new Bat Detective Project invites you to do just that by listening to the calls we have from Romania and the Transylvania region. Visit http://www.batdetective.org to begin your own spooky journey.
Transylvania is a part of Romania, where the Romanian Bat Protection Association have been responsible for involving more than 100 volunteers in the collection of thousands of hours of acoustic recordings from microphones attached to cars driving over 50,000 km around some very bumpy roads! These data make up a large part of the calls in Bat Detective. For Halloween 2012 we've specially selected these sounds to be shown on the site.
Despite what you may have heard about the legend of Dracula, you will not hear any vampire bats (bats that feed on blood) in the recordings from Transylvania! In fact there are only 3 species of 'vampire' bats out of over 1200 bat species in total - with only one species known to associated with humans and they all live in South America. However, some exciting species that you might hear in the recordings include the Schreiber's bent-wing bat (Miniopterus schreibersii) which is one of most threatened species in Europe and the European free-tailed bat (Tadarida teniotis) which might possibly be one of the smelliest!
Good luck on your trip!
Rob and the Zooniverse Team