By John Custodio

SUNY Oswego senior Nicole Rose has started her independent research on bat echolocation and the effects of anthropogenic, or human-made, sound on bat behavior.

Rose’s research is overseen by professor Maria Sagot, who holds a Ph.D in biological sciences from Louisiana State University and has over a dozen research articles published with most on bats.

Bats use echolocation to navigate and find insects to feed on, reflecting sound waves off of surfaces that bounce back and form an image for the bat. Sagot said many anthropogenic sounds like cars produce sounds at the same frequencies as bats, which can interfere with bat navigation. This might make bat navigation less accurate or efficient, which can be devastating for animals that need fine-tuned systems with little room for error. 

“One of the things that some species have shown is that they are able to modify the frequencies they are calling to avoid the interference with human noises,” Sagot said. Sagot continued, saying that different bats may more or less adapt to humans depending on how well they can handle sound.

“We know that some species are very, very sensitive to humans and they are completely avoiding them, living in the woods and you would never find them living in neighborhoods or cities,” Sagot said. “But there are some that are able to live close to humans, they roost in houses, they roost in buildings and under bridges and stuff like that with a lot of noises.” 

Sagot said the current idea is that the species that live close to humans are the ones that can adapt their calls to live near humans. The goal of the study is to find what species can live near humans, and find the patterns in the echolocation calls that are modified to work around anthropogenic sound interference.

“So what we’re looking at is how the length and frequency changes between the echolocation calls in urban populations,” Rose said. “And we’re seeing how that differs from bat calls in more rural areas or more forested areas.”

Calls are recorded from 5 p.m. until they get enough samples, with no definite end time in the evening. Rose and students helping with the research use active and passive recording systems. Active recording means researchers listen for calls in areas that they know bats are, and record when they are seen flying around. Passive recording means the researchers leave a recorder for an extended period of time and record calls with no humans around.

For the forested population of bats, Rose records at Rice Creek. For urban populations, bats are recorded in residential areas of Oswego, and in Syracuse as well.

“If you know of anyone that has bats in their house, tell them to email us because we’re trying to get a wide range of calls,” Rose said. “Just to see how they differ between locations and if the calls in Oswego differ from the ones in Syracuse, and how they differ from the ones in forested populations.”

Rose is also practicing handling bats using a trapping tactic called mist netting. A thin net is strung across a body of water, like Rice Creek, and at dusk bats are caught flying through. Under the supervision of Sagot, Rose and other students practice using the right handling protocols such as wearing bite-proof gloves and gently handling the animal.

Rose’s project will continue through the fall and spring semesters, and she would like to continue researching post-graduate. The end goal is to get the research published in a scientific journal. Four students work regularly alongside Rose, registering the project as directed research credits. Ten other students join for mist netting to gain field experience and build resumes, according to Rose.

After graduation, Rose wants to work in conservation and rehabilitation, and wants to focus working on mammals.

“I always thought I would work with large mammals, but here I am working with small mammals,” Rose said. “I am definitely open to keep working with bats because they are really important, one of the most important organisms that can pollinate so it’s really critical that there are a lot of people working towards conserving bats.”

Rose has worked on research projects since her freshman year, in the fall of 2018. She started working alongside Sagot in her sophomore year, but assisted Sagot in 2018 with flying squirrel research.

Rose wants people to know that bats are an important order of mammals, and they fill important roles in the ecosystem as pollinators and insectivores. She says bats are often misunderstood and do not deserve the reputation as vermin.

If you or someone you know has bats roosting in your house, email nrose3@oswego.edu or maria.sagot@oswego.edu.

Kailee Montross   |  The Oswegonian