bat detector
Hear and experience bats
A public bat detector is located on the shore path of the Lake Burgsee. With this device it is possible to listen to the ultrasonic calls of the bats, which we humans cannot hear.
At the touch of a button, a loudspeaker is activated to hear live for a few seconds whether bats are flying past the shore or just above the water surface, orienting themselves there or on their fighter flights. Hunting at the Lake Burgsee is mainly done for mosquitoes and other twilight and nocturnal insects such as moths. Especially on warm nights, the Lake Burgsee is an ideal feeding ground for several species of bats, which emit very different calls.
Night concert
As active flying mammals, bats use echosounders and ultrasound to produce an auditory image of their environment. However, as they scream in the ultrasonic range beyond our hearing limit, it is a new experience for us humans to be able to hear these calls - made audible by microphone and technical means. Children, teenagers, families and spa guests, in particular, can be taken from Bad Salzungen to the often hidden, mysterious world of nocturnal bats.
Bad Salzungen is bat-friendly
In Bad Salzungen there are more than 15 different species of bats, which hide their quarters here during the day, e.g. in and at buildings, in cellars or also in tree caves. Especially during the summer months, our bats fly night after night to catch insects in the city area, the Werra floodplain and the surrounding area.
In the insect-poor winter-time, bats hide themselves however, mostly in underground frost-free rooms, like cellars or caves, in order to hold in these protected hibernation. They lower their body temperature clearly to almost ambient temperature and live off their fat reserves. So they can sleep through for weeks in part.
The Public Bat Detector at Lake Burgsee is a joint environmental education project of the city of Bad Salzungen and the „Interessengemeinschaft für Fledermausschutz und Forschung Thüringen (IFT) e.V.“ (Interest Group for Bat Protection and Research Thuringia). It was made possible with the generous financial support of „Sparkassenstiftung der Wartburgregion“ and „Naturstiftung DAVID“ (Erfurt).
Here you have the possibility to hear bat sounds: