Welcome to the website for Automatic Monitoring of Bat Roosts in Europe (AuMoBre)

Many batspecies hibernate in underground sites in large numbers (hibernacula). These underground sites are not always accessible by man. Furthermore some batspecies tend to crawl away in small crevices and cracks in the walls, making discovery hardly possible. This not only happens in underground sites but also in above ground sites such as bunkers and old fortresses.
Getting the number of hibernating bats right is important from both conservational and social point of view. As visual inspection is hampered, alternatives for getting the numbers right are badly needed. Various techniques are being used and developed for doing just that: Automatic Monitoring of Bat Roosts in Europe (or AuMoBRE).

We hope that by hosting this website information is more easily shared and that people involved can find each other more easily.  As a speaker at the first workshop of AuMoBRE said so well: ‘Bats are highly developed mammals with complex behaviour. Those who want to work with them need to act as a team’(K. Kugelschafter, 2014).

First workshop at Noctalis/Bad Segeberg 2014.
One initial reason for organizing the first workshop is the danger of collapse of lime stone quarries, underground bat roosting sites, in the Netherlands and Belgium. Authorities more and more prohibit the annual bat counting by bat workers in important hibernations sites. A tradition of yearly counts since the 1930’s is interrupted. In other parts of Europe there are many underground sites which are not counted because of too few bat workers.

Because of more than 20 year of experience running a light barrier system at the Kalkberghöhle in Bad Segeberg / Germany, the Dutch Mammal Society (de Zoogdiervereniging) and Noctalis – World of Bats, developed the idea for this workshop which was held at Noctalis/Bad Segeberg.

Please find the presentations held at the first workshop in 2014 below.
We thank all the contributors and participants for sharing their ideas!!!

Presentations:

Program AuMoBre (pdf)

Karl Kugelschafter:  25 Years of Bat Research at the Limestone Cave in Bad Segeberg (pdf)

To be added: Anne Jifke  Haarsma: Introduction of the Dutch hibernacula

Hans Baagøe: Monitoring with classical field methods in Mønsted and Daugbjerg (pdf)

Hans Jørgen Degn: Automatic registration of bat activity through the year at Mønsted Limestone Mine (pdf)

To be added: Anne Jifke Haarsma: Automatic counting systems in NL

Theo Poppen: Hibernating bats in bunkers in the District of Aurich, Northern Germany (pdf)

To be added: Alex Lefevre: A full year monitoring of a part of the fortress of Steendorp, Belgium

Matthias Goettsche:  Light barrier systems in Schleswig-Holstein - major tools in monitoring (pdf)

Cyprian Payne: UK system (pdf)

Thijs Bosch: Development of new techniques (pdf)

Jeroen van der Kooij: Experience with automated systems in Norway (pdf)

Karl Kugelschafter: Possibilities of ‘small units’ (pdf)

To be added: Eric Jansen: Experiments with radar systems

Lena Grosche: Infrared Video (pdf)

To  be added: Frauke Meier: Transponder

To be added: presentations of day three