At Morris Lake the bat detector recorded a whole series of calls that were of lower frequency than the little brown myotis, which told him that a larger bat had made the calls. Slough does not think that the presence of new bat species in the Yukon is very surprising as very little is known about bats here. He is the only person doing bat research in the territory. Bat researchers have identified a number of new species of bats in northern British Columbia in recent years, so it is not surprising that these species should be in the Yukon as well. While he is certain that the species he recorded were not little brown myotis, he points out that the use of bat detectors to identify species is still controversial in some circles.
Bats emit a range of different calls, and there can be overlap of calls between species.
By comparing the original sounds with the returning echoes, bats can measure the distance to a target and even evaluate its size, texture, and direction and speed of movement. When hunting bats emit one echolocation pulse per wing beat. There are many more questions to be answered about bats in the Yukon. For example, no one knows where the bats go in winter, though Slough suspects that they head for thermokarst caves in southeast Alaska. Slough hopes that his research will also help to educate people about bats, which still have a bad reputation in some circles.