3 A microbat at Mongarlowe, NSW
Identification history
| Vespertilionidae (family) | 17 Jul 2022 | MPennay | ||
| Unidentified | 17 Jul 2022 | LisaH |
Identify this sighting
Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.
User's notes
We had been noticing a high pitched squeaking, loud and insistent, during the day and at night, and assumed it was rats. However, the noise remained in the lining above a window, and there was never a scurrying or thumping or arguing as you get with rats. Then, to our surprise and delight (not a big fan of rats), we saw, for the first time in our lives, these palm-sized microbats. Each came seperately, and we opened the doors and each flew out. I recorded their sound (well, what we think is their chatting), and will post separately.
4 comments
MPennay
wrote:
17 Jul 2022
Great sighting, it's a bit hard to identify this bat beyond the family it belongs to (Vespertilionidae) as there are about 5 species locally that all look very similar but vary in size, to identify to the species bat experts have to measure them carefully, sometimes the difference between is only a matter of millimetres.
LisaH
wrote:
17 Jul 2022
Thank you! It was so exciting to see them - but worrying at the same time (worried they might hurt themselves). Are you able to listen to the recording, please? Is it bats? And would it help with ID at all?
MPennay
wrote:
17 Jul 2022
The recording sounds like bats, to identify them we'd need to record with special ultrasonic recorders, as most of the sounds they're making are well above our hearing (about twice as high as the maximum frequency we can hear) .
LisaH
wrote:
17 Jul 2022
That's so interesting - we wondered whether our simple iPhone could pick up something we couldn't hear. Thank you so much for your informative comments - I've learnt so much. And bats are fascinating! These bats have been there for a number of years, I now realise - always thought they were rats that would never leave. I'm so pleased they aren't rats.
Location information
- Maps Mongarlowe River
- Places Mongarlowe, NSW
Sighting information
- 2 Abundance
- 16 Jul 2022 09:26 PM Recorded on
- LisaH Recorded by
Additional information
- Alive / healthy Animal health
Species information
- Vespertilionidae (family) Scientific name
- A microbat Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 757.99m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
