Our understanding of naturally flying bats is limited, and a better knowledge of the natural history of their aerial ecology could play a vital role in their conservation. The expansion of wind energy infrastructure has been detrimental to bat populations, primarily through collision mortality. We used advanced 3-Dimensional (3D) Geo-Tracking technology to provide a deeper understanding of bat flight behaviors in the wild. This Thermal Tracker 3D system was developed by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and commercialized by Sightir, We deployed the Thermal Track 3D (TT3D) to passively track bats with thermal stereoscopic imaging. The TT3D system relays real-time positional data of tracked bats by recording multiple parameters of bat flight, including altitude, speed, wing beats per second, and trajectory. We used a Wildlife Acoustics SM4 bat detector to help identify bats to species as we recorded them with the TT3D. Sequences of the recorded 30 thermal images per second were then analyzed using algorithms to interpret the biophysics of a bat’s flight. In addition to advancing our knowledge of the aerial ecology of bats, this ongoing research may also provide a toolset to reduce wind energy impacts to bats.

Dave Johnston is an Associate Ecologist and Bat Biologist at a consulting firm, H. T. Harvey & Associates. Dr. Johnston guides public agencies and corporations in evaluating impacts and establishing mitigations for bat populations in California and Hawaii. Dave has authored numerous scientific articles on the foraging ecology of bats, he is the senior author of the Caltrans Bat Mitigation Manual, and he has made various webinars and podcasts on the ecology and conservation of bats. Dave previously taught biology courses for several years at Santa Clara University, and has taught many bat ecology workshops for public agencies, Cal Academy of Sciences, and The Wildlife Society. He currently has on-going bat projects in Belize, Costa Rica, and throughout California.