some more bat-related stuff going on:
last wednesday, there was a bat night in eng [G], at the dead-end of hinterriss valley.
hinterriss valley, the only valley in the “alpenpark karwendel” (something like “alpine nature protection area karwendel”) which is perennially inhabited, can only be reached (by car) through germany.
there is a plain near eng, called “ahornboden” – it’s a pasture with old maple trees, which is kinda special. i was told that the trees only had a chance to grow tall in a relatively short phase of non-cultivation (because of a war). when the area was managed again, the maple trees were already too tall to be eaten by cows etc.
after a delicious dinner (tiroler gröstl) at eng alm, we went to this unique maple plane and set up the nets.
two common pipistrelles (pipistrellus pipistrellus, zwergfledermaus), one whiskered bat (myotis mystacinus, bartfledermaus) and a brown long-eared bat (plecotus auritus, braunes langohr) were caught.
it was this year’s last bat night (afaik), and we had a good result (as opposed to “nothing” and “next to nothing” at some of the previous bat nights)…
[view photos: bat night, eng/risstal]
also, i’ve uploaded a few photos of vespertilio murinus (parti-coloured bat, zweifarbfledermaus) , who stayed at my place for a few days ;-)
at the “showing-teeth” photo, note how the incisors can not be seen. bats do have incisors, too, but they’re immersed in order to prevent any misleading ultrasound reflections (or so it is assumed).
oh, and the last photo of this session is really the serotine bat (eptesicus serotinus), i thought this one was really cute ;-). the serotine bat was the sweetest one, by the way. she was released last wednesday within the scope of a “bat protection” press conference…
[view photos: vespertilio murinus]
something else you might find interesting: i took the time and went down to römerpark with the batbox (=ultrasound detector) i borrowed, my mp3-player, a few cables and a flashlight.
since it was a kind-of warm summer evening, there were several bats flying around, and i recorded them for a while:
[listen to sample]
[ultrasonic bat calls] – mp3, 410KB
(those are the sounds of a single one, not far from the water)