Contents

Purpose of batcalls.org

Batcalls.org was developed primarily to facilitate sharing of time-expanded echolocation calls that can be used as reference calls, i.e., calls for which the bat species has been identified with a high degree of certainty. During the upload process contributors can enter a certainty classification for each call and describe how the call was assigned to species. Calls for which the bat is unknown or less than 100% certain can also be uploaded. Indicating how the call was collected or how the species was determined will help others ascertain whether or not the call can be used for acoustic comparison. As with any other piece of data, researchers must use their own judgement to determine the value of the calls and corresponding assignment to species based on their knowledge of the the contributor's skill, experience and talent.

Who can contribute?

Everyone is welcome to contribute calls to batcalls.org: academic researchers, professional bat biologists, amateur "citizen scientists," rehabbers, and anyone with a bat sound they'd like to share.

What type of bat sounds can be included?

Any and all bat sounds stored as .wav files are welcome. The site is primarily intended for time-expanded echolocation calls, but social calls and any other bat sounds are also welcome. Batcalls.org allows contributors to enter over 50 attributes and attach four images for each call. Though I realize few people have time for such extensive data entry, it is preferable to contribute fewer calls with more data about each call than to submit many highly similar calls. For example, it would be more helpful to have several Eumops auripendulus calls showing the full range of their call repertoire with as many call attributes as you can stand to enter rather than dozens of the same E. auripendulus call from the same location. Anabat recordings cannot be uploaded to batcalls.org because the files are not .wav files, to the best of my knowledge. If that is incorrect, those would be great too. However Anabat users already have a good call library at the University of New Mexico: UNM Anabat BatCall Library.

Referencing files from batcalls.org

Collecting good bat reference calls isn't a simple endeavor. Bat calls are data. Please respect all batcalls.org contributors and provide proper acknowledgement if you use downloaded calls in your papers or proposals.

Supported platforms & browsers

batcalls.org has been tested on:

Macintosh OS 10.2 with Internet Explorer 5.2.2

Macintosh OS 10.2 with Mozilla 1.2a

Windows 2000 with Internet Explorer 6.0.26

Report all problems, bugs, etc. to Mary using the Contact Mary link on the bottom of most of the pages. Provide details about your platform, browser, etc.

Behind the scenes

Along with HTML, batcalls.org is written in PHP (server side scripting for passing stuff back and forth between the browser and database) & MySQL (the database):

I acquired a large stack of books on web application development, PHP and MySQL while working on this site. MySQL by Paul DuBois from New Riders was by far the best. It's well written and includes many useful examples.

Grant Weyburne generously provided the javascript for the dynamic order/family/genus/species drop-down menus.

The batcalls.org virtual server is hosted by Communitech.net. Reliability and service have been excellent. I recommend them to anyone looking for a virtual server or web hosting service.

The batcalls.org display font is Tempus from International Typeface Corporation.

Cartoon bats were drawn by Mary with Adobe Illustrator.

The bat on the home page is a Rhinolophus creaghi, photographed by Mary in Borneo.

Future plans for batcalls

As time permits, I hope to:

Allow contributors to create and save standard recording profiles for repetitive information such as detector, time expansion factor, detector sampling frequency, etc.

Implement frames so that headers above search results don't scroll off page.

Add more options for searching.

Enhance the existing call function to allow changing attached images.

Develop an export function for call details.

Fix the call detail display so that the table alignment doesn't jump around.

Add more explanations for non-bat folks to enjoy and learn about bat sounds. (Thanks to Cindy Meyers for this excellent suggestion.)

If you have other enhancement requests, use the Contact Mary link found on the bottom of most of the pages to send them along.

Who is Mary?

My name is Mary Wenzel and I live in Goleta, California. I fell in love with bats on a birdwatching trip to Queensland, Australia in 1994. I work as a programmer/analyst at the University of California Santa Barbara campus. In July 1998 I took Joe Szewczak's excellent class on the biology and conservation of California bats at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus. Afterwards I purchased a Pettersson D980 detector and went on a caving expedition to Borneo in 2000. As an amateur, I rely on the generosity of other bat researchers to share their valuable reference calls. I hope that this site will encourage more researchers to share calls so that amateurs can participate more in acoustic monitoring. As an amateur birdwatcher I am continually impressed by the contributions of amateurs to basic population monitoring. Though my vacation time is limited, I am keen to see more bats of the world and am available for short-term field assistant work. I have some decent equipment and can pay my own way. Please contact me if you need any assistance!