Ultrasounds

Cactus deermouse

The cactus deermouse sings

Awhile back, I wrote a blog post about singing mice.  I’ve been wanting to learn more about this topic every since, but was stymied by the lack of mice in my yard.  This winter my veggie garden was overwhelmed by rodents that seemed determined to make sure I never got a taste of fresh broccoli.  […]

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Mexican Long-tongued bat

Sugar Bats

Among the long list of interesting creatures that call southern Arizona home are a couple of species of nectar-feeding bats, the Mexican Long-tongued bat and the Lesser Long-nosed bat.  Unlike most bats that feed on insects, nectar-feeding bats feed on the nectar of large flowers of cacti.  They are well-known to most southern Arizonans that

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Visualizing Sounds

Much of sound editing and analysis, particularly for animal sounds, is done using spectrograms.  Spectrograms are graphs that show the frequency (or pitch) on the y-axis and time on the x-axis.  The loudness of the sound is indicated by the intensity of the color.  They read somewhat like a musical score, except that time is

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Gila River Bat

Ultrasonic predators and prey

I’m having a lot of fun with my ultrasonic microphone (Ultramic 200k).  It’s opened up a parallel universe of flying mammals and calling insects and the evolutionary arms race between them. In early August of this year, I found myself camping in a gorgeous spot in the canyon country of Utah – Calf Creek.  I

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