Catching Bats
How do we catch bats?
Setting up the mist net as dusk falls
Working with bats can be very exciting, but also very challenging. Usually it involves working at night, and devising methods to catch bats when they are flying. Two of the main methods of capturing bats are mist nets and harp traps.
A mist net is a lightweight net that is placed in the flight path of the bats – across trails, over streams, by fruiting trees , at cave exits. Bats get tangled in the net and then have to be very carefully removed to be sure not to injure the delicate wings.
Now the fun starts! Untangling a fruit bat from the mist net
Checking that everything is ready before the bats start flying
Harp traps are also set across trails or over small streams. They work rather differently from mist nets – they are made of vertical sets of fine fishing line strung under tension in a frame. The bats don’t see or detect them, and get caught between the sets of line and slide down into a bag beneath the frame. They stay in the bag until we come and get them out. *** photos**** ** VIDEO**
A harp trap set across a forest trail
A group of Hipposideros that have been caught in the harp trap. They are hanging on the sides of the trap bag, waiting for us to come and get them out
