Radio-tracking Corben’s Long-eared Bat

MONITORING SPECIES

The Corben’s Long-eared Bat (Nyctophilus corbeni) distinctive species characterized by its solitary nature and grey-brown fur, with ears measuring approximately 3 cm, larger than its head. This bat species primarily inhabits areas in southeastern Australia but can also be found further north, occasionally venturing into South East Queensland.

The Corben’s Long-eared Bat is listed as Vulnerable both in Queensland and Nationally. It typically roosts under bark and in dry fissures of branches, utilising tree hollows as maternity sites. Their foraging range extends up to 3 km from their roosting sites, and they occupy diverse habitats including eucalypt forests, open woodlands and forests.

Corben’s Long-eared Bats face predation from goannas, hawks, owls, and feral cats. Additionally, threats to their survival include habitat loss due to tree loss and modified fire regimes.

Tracking bats with drones

Corben’s Long-eared Bats inhabit woodlands characterised by a mix of eucalypt forests, open woodlands, and savannahs, where they find suitable roosting sites and forage for insects within their preferred range. Traditional manual tracking with hand-held receivers not only has limitations in detection range but also demands that wildlife researchers and biologists spend extensive hours navigating challenging terrains while holding radio receivers and yagi antennas aloft, in hopes of locating their tagged ground-dwelling birds. However, Wildlife Drones’ drone-based telemetry system can cover expansive areas of up to 80 hectares in a single flight and survey any terrain, including rugged mountains. This revolutionary wildlife tracking method is a highly efficient and effective alternative to manual methods.

Tracking bats with a fixed-wing aircraft

Wildlife Drones has been working with Copperhead Environmental Consulting to track federally endangered Indiana bats.

Weighing on average just seven grams, these microbats can only be tracked with a tiny VHF radio transmitter (approximately 0.32g). However, due to their agile nature, tracking them on foot through vast and steep terrain as they migrate across the country is a near-impossible task.

As a result, Copperhead would take to the skies to manually radio-track from their Cessna 172 fixed-wing aircraft. Yet despite being able to cover vast areas, trying to track the signals of each bat one at a time still proved to be a difficult challenge.

Track up to 40 radio-tagged bats simultaneously

With Wildlife Drones’ you can empower your team to cost-effectively collect more radio-telemetry data, more often and with less effort. It’s the world’s most advanced tracking solution for locating tagged animals in real time. Compatible with any VHF tags globally, our unique sensor technology is a valuable addition to any conservation, management, and environmental science project worldwide. With Wildlife Drones, you have the ability to track up to 40 radio-tagged animals simultaneously. Importantly, this also reduces your risk of losing animals.

Categories: #EndangeredSpecies