What’s that sound? Bats! We’ve joined the effort to better understand the bat species that call Florida home.   

We set up a specialized bat acoustic monitoring station in a behind-the-scenes area at the Zoo in order to record bat calls in our area for Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the North American Bat Monitoring program (NABat) program. Researchers can identify which species makes the call based on the pattern and frequency. They use this data to understand what habitats bats need and their migration patterns while giving insights to potential population declines.   

These vastly misunderstood little mammals are critical to healthy ecosystems and studying them can prove challenging. Thankfully researchers, like those at FWC, use a simple and non-invasive method to collect data on bats – they simply just listen. Bats are incredibly noisy and have a lot to say, we just had to learn how to hear it! Insect-eating bats use echolocation to find flying bugs in the dark and their calls range from 9,000 – 200,000 Hz (hertz), which is often much higher than what humans can hear (an adult’s hearing range is typically 20 – 20,000 Hz).  

There are more than 1,400 species of bats in the world, 40 of them are found in the United States, and 13 of them are frequent flyers here in Florida. Bats are estimated to save more than $1 billion per year in the US alone by eating crop-damaging insects. 

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Brevard Zoo is an independent, not-for-profit organization that receives no recurring government funding for our operating costs. Your generous support enables us to continue to serve our community and continue our vital animal wellness, education and conservation programs.