Habitat fragmentation is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity. David Bosch’s research sets out to provide an initial assessment on the effects of fragmented landscapes caused by two artificial lakes, Thousand Island Lake in China and at the Kenyir Lake in Malaysia. David set ultrasonic detectors on 36 islands in China and 25 in Malaysia. These inland islands ranged from 1,200 ha in size to islands smaller than 0.5 ha! Initial data suggests that larger islands present higher bat diversity! These islands have greater numbers of forest specialists like rhinolophids, hipposiderids and murinines, which are almost nonexistent on small islands. However, some small islands with poor quality forest were found to have more generalist and open space bat species.

Our Walkabout was instrumental in identifying free flying bats, comparing the quality of recordings from other bat detectors in different environments and it was also a strong educational tool. The visual real time sonogram display is an interactive and engaging feature that aided undergraduates in understanding bioacoustics, bat biology and ecology.