Forest Service Taps APSU Center of Excellence for Field Biology to Study Bat Population at LBL

On a muggy summer night, while cicadas and crickets screeched in the woods at the Land Between The Lakes Recreational Area, a couple of Austin Peay State University graduate students attached a small microphone to the top of a van. Once it was set, they drove slowly through the wooded natural area, collecting sounds they couldn’t hear with the naked ear.

“The microphone records bat calls – high frequency sounds we don’t hear generally,” graduate student Seth McCormick said. “It records and makes a document of it, so we’re able to see the pattern of each bat call. That way we can determine what species of bats are present.”

McCormick and APSU grad student Morgan Kurz have made names for themselves within the scientific community in recent years because of their in-depth bat research. Their expertise led the U.S. Forest Service to contract with the APSU Center of Excellence in Field Biology this summer to monitor bat species in the 300-plus acre natural area. [Read more]