British Bat Calls

A Guide to Species Identification

£35.00

We currently have 975 in stock.

Armed with this practical little book, researchers, surveyors and amateurs can go out into the night with the benefit of the knowledge and experience built up over the years by Russ and his colleagues.
—Andrew Branson, British Wildlife

Subject: ecology conservation zoology mammals chiroptera-bats behavioural-ecology

Tags:

bat calls
bats
behaviour
chiroptera
echolocation
ecology

Trailer Video

Description

Knowledge of bat echolocation and social calls, and identification using ultrasonic ‘bat detectors’ and sound analysis software, has grown significantly in the last decade. In this practical guide Jon Russ and contributors (Kate Barlow, Philip Briggs & Sandie Sowler) present the latest information in a clear and concise manner.

The book covers topics including the properties of sound, how bats use sound, bat detectors and recording devices, analysis software, and call analysis. For each species found in the British Isles, information is given on distribution, emergence times, flight and foraging behaviour, habitat, echolocation calls including parameters for common measurements, and social calls. Calls are described in the context of the different technologies employed to record them (heterodyne, frequency division and time expansion). Various sonograms for each species are displayed in BatSound and AnaLookW. A species echolocation guide is included.

Readership

Ecologists, bat workers, bat groups, students, conservation volunteers

1. Introduction
2. Bats and sound: Properties of sound; Signal acquisition; Representing and describing sound; How bats use sound
3. Equipment: Bat detectors; Recording sound
4. Call analysis: Sound analysis software; Automatic recognition software; Using sound analysis software; Measuring call parameters; AnalookW; Common analysis problems
5. Species echolocation guide
6. Species identification
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

Armed with this practical little book, researchers, surveyors and amateurs can go out into the night with the benefit of the knowledge and experience built up over the years by Russ and his colleagues.
—Andrew Branson, British Wildlife
A long-awaited book on bat calls has been published by Pelagic Publishing. Written by Jon Russ, it gives a very clear explanation on how echolocation and bat detectors works. There are colour illustrations of sonograms for each species of British Bat and also includes a very useful selection on bat social calls. It covers heterodyne, time expansion and frequency division. It is well set out and great for quick reference.
—Bedfordshire Bat Group
It's safe to say, that I own many books on the subject of Bats. ... I can state here and now, (with certainty) that this book surpasses the others on its overall (up-to-date) content, and execution. In conclusion, the book is very well laid-out. It's very informative, and a fantastic reference, to re-visit again and again! ...Now if only a bat expert from the US (of Jon Russ' caliber) would publish a book similar to it (for North American species)...And soon! I'd be very happy!
—Al Milano, Bat Detector Reviews

About the Author

Jon Russ first became interested in bats in 1994 while completing undergraduate research into pipistrelle social calls as part of an honours degree in Zoology at the University of Aberdeen. This led to a PhD at Queen's University Belfast investigating the community composition, habitat associations and echolocation calls of Northern Ireland's bats. Since then he has been involved in a wide variety of bat-related projects which have taken him from the freezing mists of north-east Scotland and the fine soft nights of Ireland to the humid rainforests of Madagascar, Thailand and Burma.

Jon is the Director of Ridgeway Ecology, a specialist bat consultancy, and has worked for a number of years for the Bat Conservation Trust coordinating the iBats project in the UK and Eastern Europe. After nearly twenty years involvement in bat research and conservation around the world, he continues to be fascinated by these remarkable mammals.