Acoustic monitoring for bats at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: Data summary report for 2015–2018
Goodwin KR and Kirschbaum A. 2023. Acoustic monitoring for bats at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore: Data summary report for 2015–2018. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/GLKN/NRDS—2023/1397. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2299944
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore initiated an acoustic monitoring program for bats in 2015. Resulting data were provided to the Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network to be processed under the same protocol as bat monitoring data from other network parks. Acoustic recordings were analyzed using the software program Kaleidoscope Pro, and a subset of files were manually reviewed to confirm species identifications. The six bat species previously documented at the park were reconfirmed: big brown bat, eastern red bat, hoary bat, silver-haired bat, little brown bat, and northern long-eared bat. All except the northern long-eared bat were verified through manual vetting (northern long-eared bat presence in the park has been separately verified by captures). A seventh species, the tricolored bat, has never been physically captured in the park. However, our acoustic data suggest it may be present based on four manually verified recordings from one site. Although the park is outside its known range, this species has been recorded in other parts of northern Michigan, which prompted us to include it in our expanded analysis. The status of tricolored bat in the park remains uncertain due to limited data, and our data are insufficient to determine activity trends for this species. For the remaining species, activity levels for hoary bat and silver-haired bat appear to be stable, while activity levels for big brown bat, eastern red bat, little brown bat, and northern long-eared bat show decreasing trends.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Goodwin, Katy; Kirschbaum, Al
- Date of Issue
- 2023-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2299944
- Units
- GLKN , NRSS , PIRO
- Keywords
- acoustic, bats, GLKN General, Michigan