Research interests

• Bioacoustics
• Echolocation
• Sensory ecology
• Animal Behaviour
• Bats (Chiroptera)

 

 

 

 

 

Scientific projects

My PhD research is embedded in the framework of ChiRoPing (ChiRoPing), an EU-funded project within the Seventh Framework Programme. The goal of ChiRoPing is to develop robust and versatile embodied active sonar sensor systems based on the echolocation system of bats. My studies focus on one of the main objectives of ChiRoPing, which is to understand how bats (Chiroptera) can discriminate stationary, motionless objects (i.e. insects) from the background (i.e. vegetation) by use of their sonar system.

In general, echolocation serves as the principal sensory basis for bats to gather information about their surroundings. In many cases echolocation also enables food acquisition. The use of echolocation is determined by the ecological conditions the bats are facing in terms of habitat structure and by the respective sensory and motor tasks they have to perform (Kalko and Schnitzler 1998, Schnitzler et al. 2003). Perceptually, bats are equipped with several sensory capacities (e.g., vision, olfaction, passive listening, and echolocation) to detect, classify and locate food. The predominant use of one or the other sensory cue depends mainly on the proximity of bats to echo-producing background (Schnitzler and Kalko 2001, Schnitzler et al. 2003).

During my diploma thesis I gathered behavioural data on the prey detection performance of Micronycteris microtis (Phyllostomidae), an insectivorous bat that gleans silent and stationary arthropods from surfaces. This data set provides an excellent basis for my dissertation which assesses more rigorously object recognition through echolocation.

My PhD thesis focuses on the ability of bats to find and capture prey by echolocation in the complex surroundings of vegetation. More specifically, I am interested how bats perceive and interpret acoustic cues that are provided by targets close to or within clutter. I am investigating this by means of behavioural experiments where selected bat species, with the main focus on Micronycteris microtis face a variety of different tasks, e.g. identifying different sized, stationary prey objects in the dark by echolocation. Fieldwork and data acquisition take place on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a field station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panamá. I am monitoring the bats’ foraging, flight and echolocation behaviour with high-speed 3D image captures synchronised with ultrasound-recordings using a multi-microphone array. I am also performing behavioural experiments with another gleaning bat (Thyroptera tricolor) from a different family that also forages very close to vegetation but emits calls that are much higher in frequency and repetition rate, to gain additional insights in how bats use their sonar system in cluttered environments.

Publications

Santana SE, Geipel I, Dumont ER, Kalka MB, Kalko EKV (2011) All you can eat: high performance capacity and plasticity in the common big-eared bat, Micronycteris microtis (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). PLoS ONE 6(12): e28584

Vanderelst D, De Mey F, Peremans H, Geipel I, Kalko EKV, Firzlaff U (2010) What noseleaves do for FM bats depends on their degree of sensorial specialization. PLoS ONE 5(8): e11893

Conference contributions

Geipel I, Mangold M, Kalko EKV (2011) Living down the tube: roosting conditions and behavioural adaptations of Spix’s Disk-Winged bat Thyroptera tricolor.
Poster presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Tropical Ecology, gtö, Frankfurt, Germany
(Maria Sibylla Merian Award for Best Posters)

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2011) Echolocation strategies for object recognition in dense rainforest of two gleaning bats, Micronycteris microtis and Thyroptera tricolor.
Talk presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Tropical Ecology, gtö, Frankfurt, Germany

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2011) Scanverhalten der gleanenden Blattnasenfledermaus Micronycteris microtis in störechoreicher Umgebung.
Talk presented at the workgroup meeting of bat researchers, Loccum near Hannover, Germany

Mangold M, Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2011) Ab in die Tüte: Quartierwahl der Amerikanischen Haftscheibenfledermaus Thyroptera tricolor.
Poster presented at the workgroup meeting of bat researchers, Loccum near Hannover, Germany

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2010) Echolocation strategies for object recognition in dense rainforest for two gleaning bats, Micronycteris microtis and Thyroptera tricolor.
Talk presented at the 15th International Bat Research Conference, 23.-27. August 2010, Prague, Czech Republic

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2009) Finding the needle in a hay stack: capture performance of the Common Big-Eared Bat Micronycteris microtis - an acoustic perspective -.
Poster presented at 5th Animal Sonar Symposium, Kyoto, Japan

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2009) Target discrimination through echolocation in two sympatric Neotropical gleaning bats, Micronycteris microtis and Thyroptera tricolor.
Poster presented at the Acoustic Communication Course, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2009) Finding the needle in a hay stack: capture performance of the Common Big-Eared Bat Micronycteris microtis - an ecological perspective -.
Poster presented at the joint meeting of ATBC and gtö, Marburg, Germany
(Maria Sibylla Merian Award for Best Posters)

Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2009) Finding the needle in a hay stack: capture performance of the Common Big-Eared Bat Micronycteris microtis.
Poster presented at the workgroup meeting of bat researchers, Frauenwörth, Chiemsee, Germany

Geipel I, Übernickel K, Kalko EKV (2008) ChiRoPing: Development of a mobile and robust sonar system based on active perception, morphology and behaviour of bats.
Poster presented at the Sensory Ecology Course, Lund University, Sweden

Übernickel K, Geipel I, Kalko EKV (2008) ChiRoPing: Entwicklung eines beweglichen und robusten Sonarsystems, unter Verwendung von aktiver Wahrnehmung, Morphologie und Verhalten nach dem Vorbild von Fledermäusen.
Poster presented at the 4th International Environment Day, University of Ulm, Germany