The skynet, a new method to capture bats over water

Abstract

When monitoring bats, the greatest yield in capture rate for survey effort can often be found in riparian and lentic habitats. However, capturing bats over large bodies of water is usually challenging due to the logistics of deploying equipment and extracting bats whilst ensuring the safety of surveyors. We present a novel technique – the “skynet” – as one solution to this problem, allowing fast and safe deployment of a suspended mist net between two anchor points over open water. Preliminary fieldwork in a Croatian scrub-dominated landscape yielded a capture of 22 bats of five species over a 1600 m2 pond. Our results demonstrate that the method is effective compared to a simultaneous net positioning on the bank of the same water body, which yielded no bats. System design and recommendations for bespoke alterations, alternative equipment options, and future investigations are presented here.