{"id":23868,"date":"2023-09-24T12:03:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T16:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=23868"},"modified":"2023-09-24T12:04:46","modified_gmt":"2023-09-24T16:04:46","slug":"bats-mount-auburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2023\/09\/24\/bats-mount-auburn\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening For Bats At Mount Auburn Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The group of nine of us began looking and listening for bats at Cambridge\u2019s Mount Auburn Cemetery as night fell last Wednesday evening. Christopher Richardson, a biology teacher at Tufts University and bat biologist at Boston University, held up the receiver of a sort of bat translator, basically an audio device that can detect calls bats make that people can\u2019t usually hear and make them audible to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2017, this citizen scientist-naturalist project<\/a> has been surveying the bats at Mount Auburn<\/a> to consider cemeteries as potential bat refuges in cities. And they\u2019re trying to figure out where bats raise their young here so they can advise the cemetery on what trees to leave be and perhaps create quiet areas to protect the bats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it got darker and darker, we hiked up and down the hills of the cemetery, stopping under the stately trees, along rows of quiet crypts, at the edges of still ponds for a minute at a time to record observations. At one point a great blue heron squawked as it took off from a pond and its lanky silhouette glided into the night sky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big brown bats are the most prevalent bats here, but they\u2019ve also detected eastern red bats, hoary bats, and little brown myotis. And they\u2019ve found bats here generally favor low lands (places with lower elevations), clear space under trees, and bodies of water, where they hunt insects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2023 or the respective creators.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Christopher
Christopher Richardson holds up an audio device to listen for bat calls at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Looking
Looking and listening for bats at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Looking
Looking and listening for bats at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christopher
Christopher Richardson holds up an audio device to listen for bat calls at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Looking
Looking and listening for bats at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
A cricket on the path at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Looking
Looking and listening for bats at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christopher
Christopher Richardson checks the audio device to listen for bat calls at Cambridge’s Mount Auburn Cemetery, Sept. 20, 2023. (\u00a9Greg Cook photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The group of nine of us began looking and listening for bats at Cambridge\u2019s Mount Auburn Cemetery as night fell last Wednesday evening. Christopher Richardson, a biology teacher at Tufts University and bat biologist at Boston University, held up the receiver of a sort of bat translator, basically an audio device that can detect calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[1171,42,1172],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23868"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23913,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23868\/revisions\/23913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}