500,000 Bats Emerge From Cave - filmed in infrared
Wired Science News for Your Neurons
Infrared Video: 500,000 Bats Emerge From Cave
* By Alexis Madrigal Email Author
* October 5, 2009 |
* 3:43 pm |
* Categories: Animals
*
Bats use echolocation to see in the dark, but unfortunately human scientists cannot do the same.
That poses a problem for ecologists who want to know, for example, how many Brazilian free-ta
More..iled bats live in the Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico. Researchers can’t shine a light on them because that disrupts their behavior, but they can’t see them without light. The answer? Infrared cameras, of course.
By installing infrared sensors, life scientist Nickolay Hristov of Winston-Salem State University and Thomas Kunz of Boston University were able to study the bat colonies in great detail from less than 50 feet away. They discovered that only something like 4 million bats live in the large colonies, an order of magnitude less [pdf] than previously estimated by visual inspection methods in the 1950s.
Beyond the science, their work also yielded tremendous video, which was posted at The Scientist. Embedded above, the team’s infrared camera captured half a million bats emerging from the cave to feed at night.
The next step in this see-in-the-dark science will be taking data with multiple cameras, so that the scientists can triangulate the precise positions of the bats during flight, Hristov said.
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Added: Oct 6 2009 In: education
By: wet501
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Comments - sort by newest to oldest
I've seen the bats as they were leaving the cave. Awesome spectacle!
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "sloop" Premium
They look more like fish. How come they dont dart around like a bat when they come out ? Interesting to say the least.
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "tentoesuptentoesdown" (R)
trippy
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "Nephilim777" (R)
How could they tell it was 500,000 bats?
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "david8" (R)
It was closer to a Brazilian bats.
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "buttkracken" (R)
Holy Bats Batman,..!
dem allot of bats,.
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "SharkGuy" (R)
totally batty
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "Amperz" (R)
Come on Batman why so SeRiOuS!
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "DirkDiggler1" (R)
Can see this in Austin Tx. as well...
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "boomersooner" (R)
0_0
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "cptdarknuggets" (R)
Looks like sperm doing the breast stroke!
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "SouthParkIndie" (R)
That's more like 1,000 bats just flying in circles in front of the camera (like the jeeps in the movie 'Top Secret').
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "4_EpicFail" (R)
looks more like
SPERM!!!
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "Revo Emag" (R)
this is actual footage of bats flying out of Courtney Love's vagina.
Posted Oct-6-2009 by "auntsamwantsme" (R)
Did anyone else see the UFO at 45 seconds????????????????
;o)
Posted Oct-7-2009 by "Tongueboy" (R)