Following the publication of Bat Surveys for Professional Ecologists Good Practice Guidelines 4th edition, BCT will be setting up a working group to further develop guidelines for bat surveys with night vision aids, including thermal imaging and infrared cameras. The working group will attend a kick-off meeting in autumn 2023 and develop the guidelines through a series of meetings in late 2023 and 2024.

This public consultation aims to collect information on current practices and desires/expectations from practitioners for new guidelines on this topic. The intended audience is anyone who works with night vision aids for bat surveys. 
The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete.
The consultation will close on 31st October 2023.

Please contact Jan Collins on jcollins@bats.org.uk if you have extensive experience with both thermal imaging and infrared and would like to contribute to the production of the guidance.

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* 1. In which region/country do you work (tick all that apply)?

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* 2. Which stakeholder group do you represent (tick all that apply)?

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* 3. Which tools do you currently deploy for bat emergence surveys of buildings (tick all that apply)?

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* 4. Which tools do you currently deploy for bat emergence surveys of trees (tick all that apply)?

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* 5. Do you think that night vision aids are essential on all emergence surveys?

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* 6. If no, in which situations are night vision aids not essential (tick all that apply)?

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* 7. How do you deploy night vision aids on emergence surveys of buildings? Pick the answer closest to your chosen approach or tick 'Other' and provide further information if you take a different approach.

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* 8. How do you deploy lamps to illuminate your infrared camera bat surveys of buildings? Pick the answer closest to your chosen approach or tick 'Other' and provide further information if you take a different approach.

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* 9. How do you use night vision aids? Pick the answer closest to your chosen approach or tick 'Other' and provide further information if you take a different approach.

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* 10. If you watch the screen during an infrared camera bat survey, do you still look at the footage afterwards? Pick the answer closest to our chosen approach or tick 'Other' and provide further information if you take a different approach.

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* 11. If you do not watch the screen during an infrared camera bat survey, how do you review the footage? Pick the answer closest to your chosen approach or tick 'Other' and provide further information if you take a different approach.

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* 12. How soon after the survey do you review the night vision aid footage? Pick the answer closest to your chosen approach or tick 'Other' and provide further information if you take a different approach.

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* 13. What software do you use to review your night vision aid footage?

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* 14. Do you use any automated analysis software to analyse night vision aid footage?

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* 15. Please state up to five topics that you would most like to see covered in new guidelines for bat surveys with night vision aids. Please rank them in order of importance with 1 being the most important.

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* 16. Would you like to make any other comments in relation to the deployment of night vision aids for bat surveys or desires/expectations from new guidelines?

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