Bat Acoustics

Are Bat Acoustics the Same as Other Animals?

No. Most echolocation calls recorded from bats are calls used to navigate and identify prey, not social calls like other animals (birds, amphibians, etc). That means bat calls are influenced by habitat type and diet, making it difficult to impossible to distinguish species.
Who Can Identify Bat Calls to Species?

Auto classifiers (e.g., Kaleidoscope Pro) are accurate only ~40% of the time. They can be helpful for grouping calls prior to manual vetting, but cannot be used alone.

An experienced biologist is required to manually vet calls, where experience requires reviewing thousands of bat calls and measuring bat calls from captured bats. Even then, analysis is subjective and many calls are not good enough quality to ID species. 

Analyses should incorporate habitat type and likelihood of species occurrence (Bayesian inference) to get the most accurate species ID. 

Without adhering to this, I've seen reports published for clients stating there are spotted bats in the Rocky Mountains of AB/BC (a rare desert species that eats large moths = very low likelihood of occurrence in the high mountains). That is a waste of client money that could go to more meaningful work.

Does Detector Placement Matter?

Yes! Accurate species ID doesn't just come down to analysis, but also where the detector was placed. Branches in front of the microphone, as well as "loud" water and powerlines add noise which can interfere with bat call recordings. Also, ensuring the detector is placed along flyways and foraging areas will be important for capturing high quality calls.