UMaine Mentioned in MPBN Report on Bat Counting Project
The University of Maine was mentioned in the Maine Public Broadcasting Network report, “Volunteers count bats in Maine in an effort to save them.” It’s estimated that between five to seven million hibernating bats, 80 to 90 percent of entire colonies in some cases, have been killed by white-nose syndrome, according to the report. BatME, an effort by researchers at UMaine, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and Maine Audubon, aims to document bat populations around the state, the report states. As part of the program, UMaine researchers are looking to get acoustic bat detectors into the hands of as many citizen scientists as possible. The bat detector is an iPad equipped with an ultrasonic microphone that interfaces with an app on the tablet. It records high-frequency bat calls and interprets and identifies the type of bat that’s making the sound, the report states. The idea is to not only to collect data about bats but to get people to lose their misconceptions about them, the article states.