Applying acoustic and tracking data to assess landscape- and fine-scale habitat use to inform the conservation of at-risk bats

Interns will help collect various data about Ontario’s bat species, and use these to investigate their distributions, use of different land cover, and interactions with the human environment in the Greater Toronto Area. One project will use ultrasonic recorders to monitor bat echolocation activity, and identify temporal and spatial activity patterns in an urban gradient, and activity around roosts. A second project will track fine-scale bat movements using radio transmitters to test variation in use of different land cover in urban areas. The interns will be hosted be the Toronto Zoo’s Native Bat Conservation Program, which will benefit from assistance with fieldwork and the scientific analyses conducted by the interns. These results will be applied by the Zoo in its work supporting Ontario bats with concrete conservation outcomes, applying the institution’s mission of “connecting people, animals, and conservation science, to fight extinction”.

Faculty Supervisor:

Christina Davy

Student:

Partner:

Toronto Zoo

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Arts, entertainment and recreation; Other services (except public administration)

University:

Carleton University

Program: