Bats-2: How do you attempt to get an accurate count of 
a bat population, with millions flapping past your head 
at a high rate of speed? We'll tell you how, coming up 
on Passport To Texas.


Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife. For the 
second year, biologists at Boston University have come to 
Uvalde to study the ecological and economical benefits of 
bats on the state's agriculture industry. 


"It's one of the largest funded projects ever to study bats. 
We have bat biologists; we have mathematical modelers, 
computer scientists, climatologists, ecological economists 
all working on the project." 


That's Boston University's Dr. Tom Kunz. The study is part 
of five-year analysis to determine the dollar contribution 
the species provides to protect crops against insects. 
But part of the process is to determine just how many bats 
there are residing in the area.


"Obviously we can't have a little hand tally and count them 
one at a time because they fly any where between 600 to 1000 
bats per second. What we are using are thermal cameras, 
basically detect heat rather than light and so independent 
of any daylight or dark, we can detect, with a camera, bats 
as they emerge from these caves. So the computer scientists 
that we are working with develop these computer algorithms to 
detect a bat that is a warm spot that is produced by the body 
of the bat. And then counting them in this fashion." 


To compile the information, two computers run parallel to 
capture stereo images of the bats. Cameras are hooked to 
the computers to collect the enormous amount of data literally 
flying through the air. To learn more about bats and where 
to see them in the state, come to our website, passporttotexas.org. 
For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I'm Joel Block.