By Helen Briggs BBC News
29 June 2017
Scientists are studying the urban life of bats in
unprecedented detail using sensors installed in a London park.
The detectors eavesdrop on the nocturnal chatter of bats,
picking up their ultrasonic calls and monitoring bat activity in real-time.
The project aims
to investigate the health of bat populations at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in
London.
The smart devices have the potential to monitor the diversity
of all sorts of wildlife, from birds to frogs.
Kate Jones, professor of ecology and biodiversity at
University College London, is one of the world's leading experts in bat
conservation.
"We've created this 'Shazam' for bat activity - bat calls
- so we have put sensors into the park, which are connected up to the Wi-Fi and
power," she explained.
"And we've put an intelligent device into the sensors so
that they can pick up ultrasonic bat calls and then tell us if it's a bat and
what species it is in real time."
Living lab
In what the researchers describe as a living lab, or Internet
of Wild Things, smart bat sensors have been installed at 15 sites across the
park. The monitors are automatically tracking the species present and their
activity levels in real-time.
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