One Session: January 9-10 (Monday-Tuesday). Class size: Limited to 20 participants. Location: Hotel Carlisle, Carlisle, PA

Workshop Instructors:
Joe Szewczak, B.S.E. (1980) Duke University, Ph.D. (1991) Brown University, is an Associate Professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA. His research has investigated the physiological capabilities of bats and other small mammals, from cold hibernative torpor to the intense demands of flight and high altitude, and the physiological ecology of bats,. His teaching includes “Using SonoBat for Non-invasive Bat Monitoring” for the University of California, “Biology of the Chiroptera” at Humboldt State University, and “The Ecology and Conservation of California Bats” through San Francisco State University. Joe has also taught acoustic monitoring workshops for BCI and other groups in California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington, South Dakota, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He is the developer of SonoBat software to analyze and interpret bat echolocation calls and is currently developing automated bird and bat acoustic monitoring and identification methods for the Department of Defense (SERDP) and other agencies.

Janet Tyburec, B.A. (1989) Trinity University, a full-time employee at Bat Conservation International, Inc. (BCI), from 1989 thru September 2002, has been involved in the structure and execution of training workshops since the inception of BCI's workshop efforts in 1992. She has been extensively trained by BCI founder, Merlin D. Tuttle. Over the years, she has personally taught over 1,500 wildlife biologists, land managers, and students of conservation in the course of presenting over 100 field workshops. She currently oversees all training and instruction at BCI's Arizona, California, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania locations. She continues to be involved with many aspects of BCI's workshop program and its growth as a contract employee, a position she has held from September 2002 to the present. She has also contracted with other federal and state agencies, including the USDA Forest Service, USDI National Park Service and the Department of Defense to conduct custom training workshops for directors, staff, seasonal employees, and volunteers.

John Chenger, president of Bat Conservation and Management, Inc. (BCM), has worked with the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) to conduct cave and mine assessments and other bat inventories. He has also worked with BCI since 1997 to facilitate training workshops in Arizona, California, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. He founded BCM in 1999 to address nuisance bat management issues by providing man-made roosts and performing bat-exclusion and bat- proofing services. His company has grown to include seasonal bat roost and habitat surveys, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USF&WS) endangered species compliance inventories, acoustic monitoring studies, and large-scale migratory bat radio-tracking projects. His work has led him to develop and manufacture commercially available survey gear including mist net poles, portable triple-high mist-net sets, harp traps, and bat houses certified by BCI.

Lectures/Discussions:
Echolocation 101: The principles and biomechanics of echolocation; how bats use sound; the advantages/disadvantages of echolocation; what animals use ultrasound, why, and how; why bat calls are different from bird calls (and more difficult to discriminate), and more

The mechanics of sound and how it carries information; wave theory: frequency, velocity, amplitude; frequency and spatial resolution; what bats can detect; what they can't
call morhpology and foraging strategies; the ecophysiology of echolocation; how noise (and other bats) affects echolocation
- Advantages/limitations of capture methods
- Advantages/limitations of acoustic methods
- What information can be acquired acoustically
- Where and how to collect calls; practical advice
- Monitoring program design, implementation, and data analysis

Understanding bat detectors, how they work, and limitations and advantages: heterodyne, zero-crossing, frequency division, time expansion/ full-spectrum. Advances in acoustic recording technology, methods, and analysis
- active vs. passive monitoring
- automated recording

Recording Engineering 101- setting up to acquire data
Understanding and using digital sound recording; recording, recording settings; notes and filenaming
equipment connections; manual call recording; monitoring and triggering; recognizing and avoiding sources of unwanted ultrasound
automated call recording; digital recorders and computers.

Call and sequence morphology and terminology; sequence (i.e., bat pass) information; call information; interpreting call morphology; call parameters; distortion and quality; harmonics; recording limitations; out of range calls; mimicry; call plasticity and vocal repertoires; species characteristics of eastern North American bats; troublesome species; knowing when to NOT make the call

Setting up a study; study design; sample size; temporal and spatial aspects; analysis; site selection and recording logistics; Set up recording equipment

Location and Directions: Hotel Carlisle Carlisle, PA. Please see map at http://www.hotelcarlisle.com/contact-us.htm.

Dates: January 9-10 (Monday-Tuesday). Check in starts at 8 AM, program begins at 9 AM.

Airport Shuttle: The closest airport is Harrisburg International (MDT). There may be one shuttle trip offered to MDT, BWI, or IAD, details TBA closer to the event.

Carlisle Hotel Lodging:
Overnight lodging is available in the same building where lectures are scheduled. The rate for a double occupancy is approximately $55.00. Participants are responsible for their own lodging arrangements. If you are looking for a roomate please mention in the text box during checkout and your email will be shared only with any others that indicated the same.

Off-site Lodging:
Use this Google link to show a map of the Carlisle vicinity with hotels overlaid. The Carlisle Hotel/Embers Steakhouse is just east of the I76/I81 interchanges on the NE side of Carlisle. A few budget and also higher end hotels are nearby.

General Equipment: The course is conducted entirely within a classroom setting, indoors, with free Wi-Fi Internet access. Functional trials of SonoBat will be available for students to install on a personal laptop prior to the course. If you plan to use a government/institution/corporate owned computer BE SURE you have access privilages to install software during this class. Please bring a laptop loaded with the SonoBat demo, any previously recorded bat call files (*.wav format; recorded with any full spectrum detector), and a memory stick (2 GB or larger). It is very important for participants to pre-install the software and become familiar with its basic layout and operations to maximize time spent learning the various features and utilities. No fieldwork will be conducted during this workshop. No bats will be handled at this workshop. (Participants do not need rabies pre-exposure vaccination.)

Acoustic Equipment: Please bring personal bat detector(s), recorder(s), and connecting cables. We will have a number of Pettersson D240x detectors for participants to borrow, and a demo AR125, Baton, SM2BAT, and the new handheld from Wildlife Acoustics, the EM3. Simulated bat calls will be broadcast during a demonstration portion of the class, allowing students to make test-recordings using different detector models and practice off-loading, viewing, analyzing, and processing calls.

Meals: Morning coffee and working lunches on 9 and 10 are included with the registration fee. Please indicate below if you require vegetarian meals. All other meals are "on your own". Many resturant options are available within 5 minutes of the Hotel Carlisle several within walking distance.

Social: There will be an after meeting meeting in the Carlisle Hotel lounge after the evening session January 9. Topics to be discussed do not necessarilly have to include the Nyquist frequency and Moore’s Law, we may just want to unwind.

Fee: $395.00

How to Register: Please select options below and order online. If you are registering multiple people, please add each person individually to your shopping cart:

2. A review of the pros, cons, and applications of HET, FD, TE, and DR detectors to collect and interpret bat echolocation calls and what this means for acoustic inventory study design.

3. A discussion of active vs. passive monitoring and how these techniques figure into an acoustic survey.

4. Introducing students to SonoBat 3.0, basic operations, and what the output means for rendering species ID decisions (i.e., dispelling the quickly emerging myth and explaining carefully that calls identified with a DP of 0.95 DOES NOT mean that there's a 95% chance that the recording was from the species indicated).

5. Addressing bat echolocation call characteristics and what is known about using these for making species ID determinations, caveats, and confusing species.

6. Assisting participants with setting up TE and DR detectors and recorders to perform PASSIVE monitoring activities.