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SUMMARY:Acoustic techniques for identifying bats: new ways of obtaining di
 stribution data - Charlotte Walters. Institute of Zoology (London)
DTSTART:20110513T120000Z
DTEND:20110513T130000Z
UID:TALK30068@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Belinda Gallardo
DESCRIPTION:To effectively conserve biodiversity\, first we must know wher
 e it is distributed. Bats are an important component of biodiversity\; the
 y comprise a fifth of all mammal species and provide essential ecosystem s
 ervices such as insect regulation\, pollination and seed dispersal. Howeve
 r\, they are challenging to survey using conventional trapping and visual 
 sampling methods as they are small\, nocturnal and many are difficult to c
 atch and identify. Given that all European bats use echolocation to naviga
 te and find prey\, acoustic methods are a promising alternative method of 
 generating distribution data. However distinguishing between the calls of 
 different bat species can be difficult due to the similarity in temporal a
 nd spectral structures of calls of different species and the flexibility a
 nd intraspecific variability in calls. An objective statistical method of 
 identification is required in order to give a robust classification of ech
 olocation calls. Here I present work on developing algorithms to distingui
 sh between the echolocation calls of 33 European bat species\, as an acous
 tic identification tool. This will aid the collection of bat distribution 
 data in Europe\, which can then be entered into spatial models of bat dist
 ributions.
LOCATION:Basement Seminar Room\, Department of Zoology \, Downing Street\,
  CB2 3EJ
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