Wildlife researchers fear a serious threat to bat populations in the northeastern United States. Bats have been hibernating for an estimated one million years, and researchers are busy understanding why. The disease of unknown cause is known as "White-nose Syndrome" (White-Nose Syndrome) because of the many auras that affect bats to develop white ears on their faces.
Carl is a researcher studying this mysterious, rapidly spreading disease affecting bats in the Northeast. Below he discusses the development of an early warning system to determine if Western Syndrome will migrate.
White-nose syndrome has become a very serious problem in bats, killing thousands of bats every year. What happens with Down syndrome is that when bats hibernate for the winter, they shut down their metabolic and immune systems so they can conserve energy. When they get the syndrome, their immune system kicks back, which in turn burns fat. Bats then look for food during the winter when there is none. Eventually, they starve to death. Last fall, for white-nose syndrome, we tried to come up with an early warning detection system that worked.
We operate philosophically, unless we know how many bats we have, we don't know how much to lose. White nose syndrome has a 90% to 95% mortality rate.
To create this early warning system, we need to collect microclimate data in bat caves, to try to determine the flight paths of the bats so we can learn about where the bats came from.
In Las Vegas with bat Detector designer Tony Messina, we came up with the idea of building a prototype ultrasonic sensor/data logger capable of measuring ultrasonic sounds in the 40 kHz range. To record the data, we needed a low-cost, portable data logger that was not within hearing range of bats emitting ultrasonic sounds. Data logger, HOBO U12-006 (new models UX120-006, UX20-006M) - Meets these standards and is designed for prototyping.
Initially, we were going to mount the sensors and Recorders on a tripod, and Pryor was in the Montana Mystic Cavern located in the Central Mountain Range.
Since it had snowed so early last year, it was impossible for us to reach the 8,000-foot level in the mountain cave. So we used Playboy, an abandoned uranium mine where we know bats hibernate. It was -12°F outside on the hillside, but 38°F around.
We set up the system in the mine, this idea that it will run all winter, to see if our idea is working. The Detector continuously scans the ultrasonic waves in the 40 kHz range. When sound is detected, it stores a value on a chip. Every 15 minutes the data logger "wakes up" and sends a signal to the sensor. The sensor number then downloads a value based on a call to the datalogger and resets its storage to 0. The circle repeats every 15 minutes.
In early spring, we turned it on and found that it actually worked: we were able to detect the activity of the ultrasound. Using the HOBOware software BHW-PRO-CD, we analyzed its data to show that this project has the potential of bats to be verified for eco-locating in winter. Later in the spring, when we can be on the mountain at the 8,000-foot level, we're going to break down the system into the shaft of the Mystic Cave, from the 500-foot entrance. We will also deploy temperature and relative humidity loggers U12-011/UX100-011, UX100-003 (older model U10-003) UX100-014M, UX120-014M, UX120-014 (U12-014) data loggers will hit at the end of the year The pipeline at both ends of the pass area returns 900 feet into the mountains.
