Australian scientists find bats have regional accents

SYDNEY

It's not just people who have different accents but bats as well develop dialects depending on where they live which can help identify and protect different species,

according to Australian scientists.

Researcher Brad Law of the Forest Science Centre found that bats living in the forests along the east coast of the state of New South Wales had different calls.

He said scientists had long suspected bats had distinctive regional calls -- as studies have shown with some other animals -- but this was the first time it had been proven in the field.

Law said the different calls of about 30 bat species were used to develop a system so that scientists could identify the various bats along the coast, assess their numbers, and protect

them.

''We need to improve our ability to reliably distinguish between species that have commonly shared call features and we must increase the speed of call identification,'' Law said in the

latest edition of Forest NSW's Bush Telegraph Magazine.

''The automation of bat call identification is seen as an essential development in the efficiency of this survey method and should ultimately fulfil both of these criteria.''

The project was conducted by Law and other scientists from the Forest Science Centre, a unit of the state government body Industry & Investment NSW, and researchers from the University of Wollongong and the University of Ballarat.

Researchers took 4,000 bat calls and used a custom-made software program to develop identification keys for bat calls in different parts of New South Wales.

Bats use their calls to navigate and hunt using a process called echolocation in which high frequency ultrasounds, inaudible to humans, hit objects and echo back.

Although the identification was time-consuming, Law said it would lead to time and money savings in field surveys and possibly increase the accuracy rate and make long-term monitoring of bats cost-effective.

But the researchers said the development of automated identification keys for bat calls was in its infancy.

''The identification keys we have produced should undergo further testing and refinement using locally collected calls, before they are used to identify complete assemblages of bat

species in future studies,'' said Law.

Sep 2010

Skeleton of 18th century whale found in London

LONDON

The skeleton of a huge whale, thought to have been butchered for its meat, bone and oils 300 years ago, has been discovered by archaeologists on the banks of London's River

Thames.

The remains of the headless beast, the now rare North Atlantic Right whale, were found submerged in the thick foreshore mud at Greenwich, an historic maritime centre in the

east of the city.

''This is probably the largest single `object' ever to have been found on an archaeological dig in London,'' said Francis Grew, a senior curator at the Museum of London.

''Whales occasionally swim into the Thames, and there are historical accounts of the enormous public excitement they engendered.''

Historians believe the creature, estimated to have been 16 metres (52 feet) long, may have foundered in the river in the 17th to 18th centuries, or could have been caught by one of the

many whaling ships that operated from close by.

The skeletal remains, which weigh half a tonne and are up to four metres wide have been perfectly preserved by the anaerobic nature of the sediment.

Experts say the whale's resting place is inconsistent with a natural beaching and that it was probably dragged tail-first up onto the river bank to be butchered.

Whale oil was used for domestic lighting, while whalebone (baleen) had multiple uses, including for the manufacture of fancy jewellery, combs, riding crops and even ladies' corsets.

Most of the items would have been taken from the front of the carcass which has been hacked off.

A piece of missing bone from one of the massive vertebrae suggests the animal may have been harpooned, or that gaff-hooks were used to secure the carcass after slaughter.

It is on display until September 14 at the Museum of London's Docklands exhibition site and will then be shipped to London's Natural History Museum for further study.

Tim Bradley, of Pre-Construct Archaeology, whose team first spotted the monster find, said recovering its remains was no easy task.

''When the archaeologist on site phoned me to say what he'd found I thought he was joking ... among other things it broke the suspension on our van.''

Sep 2010