Scientists have developed a new tracking technology that allows them to monitor the migration of bats, revealing surprising insights into their flight patterns and behavior.
Historically, bat migration has been a bit of a black box. While scientists have learned lots about how birds migrate, the handful of bat species that make long-distance journeys have been tougher to study. 'Once they disappear from an area, we don't necessarily have the ability to figure out where they show up somewhere else,' says a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Germany.
Bats are also smaller than many migrating birds, meaning the sort of tracking tags that researchers stick to birds are too heavy for bats. 'To have something that can remotely send data about an animal and be small enough for a bat is really hard to come by,' says Hurme. So Hurme and his colleagues had to design one. They created specialized tags weighing just over a gram that measured how the animal is moving, as well as temperature. Unlike some other tags, which measure animal movements but must be retrieved by scientists to download the data, these new tags broadcast their information to a receiver, similar to how a cell phone does. That allows the researchers to triangulate their position and follow the bats' journey. All told, the team equipped 71 female noctule bats with these sensors. In spring, females typically migrate from their hibernation spots around Switzerland and Germany towards the northeast, where they roost. When the researchers paired their tracking data with climate data, they noticed a curious connection. 'We found that a lot of bats are actually migrating before storms come through,' says Hurme. In the spring, storms are typically preceded by warm fronts that generate strong winds that usually blow in the right direction for migration. That translates into significant energy savings for the bats, Hurme says, which can migrate nearly 1000 miles. These winds tend to blow in the general northeasterly direction of the bats migration this time of year, giving the bats — which weigh about an ounce — a significant lift. 'This was actually a big surprise.
BAT MIGRATION TRACKING TECHNOLOGY ANIMAL BEHAVIOR CLIMATE CHANGE ENERGY SAVINGS
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