Standardisation in bat acoustic research: a review of reporting practices in Australia

Kelly Sheldrick; David A. Hill; Patricia A. Fleming; Rochelle Steven

doi:10.1071/WR25043

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Next Contents Vol 52(10)

Standardisation in bat acoustic research: a review of reporting practices in Australia

Kelly Sheldrick

^A ^B ^* , David A. Hill ^C , Patricia A. Fleming

^A ^D and Rochelle Steven ^A ^E

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia.

^B Conservation Council of Western Australia, 1186 Hay Street, West Perth, WA, Australia.

^C Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

^D Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia.

^E School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: kelly.sheldrick@murdoch.edu.au

Handling Editor: Jordan Hampton

Wildlife Research 52, WR25043 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR25043

Submitted: 11 March 2025 Accepted: 29 August 2025 Published: 19 September 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Acoustic monitoring is a common survey method for echolocating bats. However, differences in equipment, methods of field deployment, and variability in bat calls complicate acoustic analysis. The Australasian Bat Society (ABS), the peak body for bat conservation in the region, published reporting standards (hereafter ‘standards’) as a guide towards consistent and transparent methods in acoustic bat surveys. Here we review how the current standards are integrated into Australian bat acoustic research. Our analysis showed that only 8 of the 107 studies reviewed adhered fully to the standards. While 89% of studies included citation to reference libraries, and 79% of studies described call characteristics of similar species, only 17% of studies adhered to guidelines requiring the inclusion of time versus frequency spectrographs for species identification. Furthermore, only 19% reported on survey effort as a function of detector hours. This review underscores the need for easily accessible and updated standards as well as the sharing of bat call reference libraries to improve the accuracy and comparability of bat acoustic surveys in Australia. Enhancing consistency and transparency in bat acoustic reporting will facilitate more robust studies and enhance the effectiveness of conservation efforts.

Keywords: acoustic detectors, Australian bats, bat acoustic surveys, bat call identification, bat call libraries, bat conservation, bat ecology, bat research, bioacoustics, echolocation, ecoacoustics, reporting standards, research transparency, survey methodology, wildlife monitoring.

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