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<p>Richard Fritsky slowly drove his vehicle through a dark corridor of road hoping to hear a creature of the night.</p><p>Fritsky, who is a wildlife diversity biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, attached an intricate microphone to the roof of his truck that was wired to a computer inside. The microphone was capable of picking up the ultra-sonic sounds of bats flying through the night. The computer recorded the bat sounds, called pulses, and replayed them at a frequency that can be heard by human ears.</p><p>One mile into the trek, a bat flew overhead and an series of eerie-sounding chirps illuminated across the computer screen.</p><p>&#8220;That one is close,&#8221; Fritsky said as the bat pulses blinked red on the screen.</p><p>The project, called BATS (Bat Acoustic Transect Survey) is designed to provide the Game Commission with a snapshot of what species of bats inhabit an area. Six transects, or routes, are designated in each region of the state and biologists drive each one recorded any bat sounds that appear. A transect is 20 miles and, to increase the chances of recording bat pulses, the biologists drive their trucks at 20 mph.</p><p>The recordings are then sent to the agency&#8217;s Northwest Region, where special software is used to delineate the pulses and identify the species. Most bat species have a distinctive sound, except for the Indiana bat whose frequency range overlaps that of other species.</p><p>On Thursday, Fritsky&#8217;s transect wound through State Game Lands 91 and the Lackawanna State Forest in the Thornhurst area. Driving slowly along main roads, such as Route 115, can make the survey challenging while dealing with tailgating traffic, even at night.</p><p>&#8220;The traffic takes precedence so sometimes you have to pull over and restart,&#8221; Fritsky said. &#8220;That&#8217;s why I try to stick to backroads.&#8221;</p><p>The survey is conducted across the state in July because that&#8217;s the month when all bats are active, including migratory tree bats, cave bats which inhabit abandoned mines and even juvenile bats which are now volant, meaning they can fly.</p><p>Fritsky&#8217;s transect include routes in Bradford, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Luzerne, Carbon and Schuylkill counties. The survey is now in its third year and Fritsky said there are certain roadside habitats that seem to generate more bat pulses.</p><p>&#8220;When you drive by old barns, creeks or ponds and heavily wooded areas where the road creates an open path for bats, the activity seems to pick up,&#8221; Fritsky said as several more chirps lit up the computer screen.</p><p>&#8220;And old churches with bell towers.&#8221;</p><p>Weather also has an impact. On this night the moon was bright, the wind was calm and the temperature hovered above 60 degrees. If it gets into the 50s, Fritsky said, it&#8217;s too cold for bats to be very active.</p><p>As Fritsky drove over the Lehigh River in Buck Township the microphone picked up another series of pulses. But for several miles after, it remained silent.</p><p>Fritsky wondered how many sounds the microphone would pick up had the survey been conducted before white-nose syndrome drastically reduced bat numbers. To go a mile or more without hearing a bat is significant, he said.</p><p>&#8220;We would&#8217;ve liked to have done this before white-nose so we had a baseline, but who would&#8217;ve thought that was going to happen,&#8221; Fritsky said as he pulled over to let several cars go by. &#8220;Just imagine no bats for miles. It&#8217;s almost unthinkable.&#8221;</p><p>The recordings not only give the Game Commission an idea of what species are out there, but the survey is also records the exact location of the pulses and can be used to identify area where rare bats may be found.</p><p>&#8220;Last year we used the survey to find a good location to trap for evening bats, which are very rare in Pennsylvania,&#8221; Fritsky said. &#8220;If we suspect a protected bat species in an area, we can pinpoint it a bit and we know where to focus any further research.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Richard Fritsky sets up his computer screen to record bat sounds. Fritsky drives 20 miles along different routes to record bats and the sounds are used to identify each species. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_bats22.jpg</photo0><caption0>Richard Fritsky sets up his computer screen to record bat sounds. Fritsky drives 20 miles along different routes to record bats and the sounds are used to identify each species. </caption0><photoCredit0>Tom Venesky | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_bats12.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Richard Fritsky holds a microphone that he attaches to the roof of his vehicle to record bat sounds at night. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_bats12.jpg</photo1><caption1>Richard Fritsky holds a microphone that he attaches to the roof of his vehicle to record bat sounds at night. </caption1><photoCredit1>Tom Venesky | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>PGC survey records high-frequency bat sounds to identify species</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><videoMeta><p><table class="mceItemTable" style="border:none;width:98%;"><tbody><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoID:</td><td id="videoid" style="width:50em;font-size:90%;">buTDNVWhF70</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">VideoType:</td><td id="videotype" style="font-size:90%;">YOUTUBE</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">URL:</td><td id="url" style="font-size:90%;"> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buTDNVWhF70</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Embed String:</td><td id="videoembedstring" style="font-size:90%;"> &lt;iframe width=&#8221;560&#8221; height=&#8221;315&#8221; src=&#8221;https://www.youtube.com/embed/buTDNVWhF70?rel=0&#8221; frameborder=&#8221;0&#8221; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Caption:</td><td id="videocaption" style="font-size:90%;">Bat sound survey with Game Commission</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Credit:</td><td id="videocredit" style="font-size:90%;">Tom Venesky | Times Leader</td></tr><tr><td style="font-weight:bold;font-size:100%;vertical-align:top;text-align:right;border:none;">Video Position:</td><td id="videoposition" style="font-size:90%;"> </td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="margin-top:10px;font-size:70%;color:#555;">(use the &#8220;for files&#8230;&#8221; link above to associate attached files with this source)</p></videoMeta></div>

Checking in on some boisterous bats