I began working with bats on 5 September 1964 simply to assist a fellow student with a Mammalogy class project. I was a dedicated fish researcher at the time, working with various species of desert pupfish. I became enthralled with bats and continued mist netting them throughout the fall and winter, not knowing that scientific dogma maintained that temperate zone bats either migrated to southern climates or stayed and hibernated. Discovering winter activity in bats prompted me to attend the annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists in 1966 and present a paper on my findings. This prompted sufficient controversy to push me into further investigations of the phenomenon. By 1967 I had formally made the switch to Mammalogy. I continued field work on the distribution of bats in southern Nevada and pursued the physiology behind winter activity. Upon graduation in 1968, I found that I could not continue without more knowledge of physiology. I was fortunate to meet Eugene Studier, a young and dynamic physiologist who I considered (and still maintain) the most innovative physiological ecologist working with bats. He accepted me as a graduate student and became a significant professional influence. We spent a productive 2-year period conducting a comprehensive physiological ecological study of two species of myotis.

Upon graduation, I followed the advice of James Findley to expand my background to other mammals in order to better find employment after school. I chose rodents for my dissertation research, which took me away from bats from 1971 to 1975. Upon my return to southern Nevada, I continued my baseline work on the distribution of bats in southern Nevada and pursued follow up physiological investigation of winter active bats. In 1976, I hosted the annual North American Symposium on Bat Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. At this event, I had the great fortune to take James Simmons into Red Rock Canyon to record human audible bats I had noted. This led to the discovery of Allen's big-eared bat using low frequency echolocation and initiated by interest in using sonar detection equipment as an ecological tool. I learned a great deal from Jim, who kindly included me in several studies of bat echolocation and shared critical equipment for field recording. I followed this line of research until 1979 at which time I determined that existing technology was not sufficient to do the ecological job that I suspected could be done. This coincided with my full time employment as a consultant, which did not allow for much time to devote to bats. Thus, little of significance was conducted through the 1980s.

In 1993, I was in Australia to test new small mammal live traps and attend the International Theriological Congress held in Sydney that year. I met David Titley of Titley Electronics and purchased an Anabat II bat detector. Upon my return home, I was awarded a contract with the Arizona Game and Fish Department Heritage Funding to conduct an evaluation of the efficacy of the Anabat system for species identification by vocal signature. The equipment, designed by Chris Corben, performed the tasks that I had suspected could be done back in the late 1970s. In May 1994, Chris passed through Las Vegas and spent a few days working with me and showing the full potential of the equipment. This made the forthcoming evaluation of the equipment possible and succeeded beyond expectations. At the end of the evaluation, I teamed with Bill Gannon, who had just completed a similar evaluation in New Mexico, to combine our data for a thorough comparison acoustic versus standard capture techniques.

Since then, I have devoted significant time to developing methods of species identification and survey techniques. Unfortunately, many people working other equipment could not identify species as reliably as we could with Anabat. This was further exacerbated by difficult and sometimes incomplete documentation that accompanied Anabat software, which resulted in the misuse or at least not full use of Anabat to its fullest potential. This created a history of various investigators claiming that the equipment was flawed and incapable of performing as advertised. Consequently, Chris, Bill and I began to offer workshops in order to teach proper use of the equipment and software. After several years, we developed a standard manual for teaching the workshops. Eventually, I combined the workshop manual and a re-work of the software documentation to produce the Anabat System Manual with Chris. We also continue to do workshops in various localities as demand requires.

In 1999, I met Tony Messina, a retired television engineer with an intense interest in bats and echolocation equipment. Amazingly, he lived just a few miles from me in Las Vegas. We have become friends and colleagues. He has been an integral force in developing various field configurations of the equipment for deploying short and long-term units for recording acoustically. He has been responsible for developing our current long-term acoustic monitoring stations. We set up a prototype long-term acoustic monitoring station at the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge in January 2002. That unit operated all night every night for 13 months. The data set was incredible, shedding new light on just how much we don't know or have been misled by past studies confined to capture devices (mist nets and harp traps). The Moapa Valley has been designated as sensitive, as has the bat fauna, so the initial intent was to continue operating this unit for many more years. However, the US Fish and Wildlife Service refuge manager did not appreciate a free study and made conditions unsatisfactory so I decommissioned the station in early March 2003.

New developments with the Anabat hardware allow data recordation directly to a Compact Flash memory card, freeing us from using laptops. Energy demands have decreased commensurately. We developed an acoustic station that can be placed in remote locations, powered by a small

solar panel. Our prototype of this new system was placed on the Nevada Test Site in September 2003, in conjunction with Bechtel Nevada. Tony also designed a new portable passive unit that uses 7.5 amp hour gel cell batteries, which allow placement for 10 consecutive nights.

The new stationary and portable systems have proven so successful that new contracts have become available. Since January 2004, I have 3 stationary units operating in Las Vegas Wash as part of the comprehensive riparian restoration project being conducted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority. In October/November 2004, 3 more stations were established within Kyle and Lee canyons in the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas for the USDA Forest Service. I will be using portable passive units at surrounding key locations to provide a landscape examination of bat use within USDA Forest Service lands. Also, in November 2004, 3 more stations were established in the Virgin and lower Muddy River drainages to assess the bat community for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. An array of portable passive units at surrounding key locations will provide a landscape examination of bat use within these two drainage systems.

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