Thank you for visiting the United by Ecology database!

This page is created to publish all kinds of extraordinary bat sounds. By giving it the shape of a database, we made the recordings available for the public as reference material and to learn from. There is still so much to discover about the language of bats!

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How does it work?

  • All recordings are uploaded to xeno-canto.org, where the audio files can be downloaded. A number that corresponds with the upload on Xeno-canto is mentioned underneath the screenshots of the sonograms. By clicking on the audio file number, you will be forwarded to the right page on Xeno-canto.

  • The main focus of this database are the social calls of bats, due to their variability between species and the variety of calls within a single species.

  • Would you like to have your recordings added to the database? Feel free to contact us through the form on the About page.

  • All recordings are reviewed and managed by Sarah Mahie, an ecologist with a keen interest in bats.

  • Not every identification is flawless. If you have a remark about a recording or it's identification, feel free to shoot a message by filling out the form on the About page.

  • In 2024 there was a collaboration with Gaia Ecologie, an ecological research agency.

  • There is always more to learn.

News:

June 2024 - One of our soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellys pygmaeus) sightings in May was in a totally new area for this species: near Grou in the province Friesland. The sighting is validated by a third party and the national distribution map for this species (NDFF) is now updated with our addition! Every contribution counts.

 


Blog:

Trying to categorize the unusual social calls (trills) of the Nathusius' pipistrelle

Some unusual social calls of the Nathusius' pipistrelle's (Pipistrellus nathusii) are trills and warbled qCF calls. These kind of calls are almost non-spoken about in literature about this species. The type D social calls of the Nathusius' pipistrelle can be categorized into different parts, of whom part A, B, C, D and E have been described in literature (Russ and Racey 2007; Hargreaves et al. 2017; Jahelková 2011; Middleton 2022).

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Not as common calls of the common pipistrelle

The common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) is the most common bat species in the Netherlands. One would assume that all it's calls would be well documented. But even well-known species have their surprises. This is a collection of the most eyebrow-raising recordings of common pipistrelle calls.

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Unusual social calls of the Nathusius' pipistrelle outside of mating season in the Netherlands in 2024

Something that absolutely fascinates me, is the Nathusius' pipistrelle's (Pipistrellus nathusii) use of unusual social calls outside of the mating season (recordings before the 15th of July), with emphasis on slow trills, fast trills and wavy-line calls. These kind of calls are almost non-spoken about in literature. Other unusual social calls to encounter during spring season are part D and part E of the type D social call.

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All recordings are licensed under the following Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 license and in courtesy of Sarah Mahie. 


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