Faculty of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia.
Sci Rep. 2012;2:524. doi: 10.1038/srep00524. Epub 2012 Jul 23.
Population surveys and species recognition for roosting bats are either based on capture, sight or optical-mechanical count methods. However, these methods are intrusive, are tedious and, at best, provide only statistical estimations. Here, we demonstrated the successful use of a terrestrial Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) laser scanner for remotely identifying and determining the exact population of roosting bats in caves. LIDAR accurately captured the 3D features of the roosting bats and their spatial distribution patterns in minimal light. The high-resolution model of the cave enabled an exact count of the visibly differentiated Hipposideros larvatus and their roosting pattern within the 3D topology of the cave. We anticipate that the development of LIDAR will open up new research possibilities by allowing researchers to study roosting behaviour within the topographical context of a cave's internal surface, thus facilitating rigorous quantitative characterisations of cave roosting behaviour.
对栖息蝙蝠进行种群调查和物种识别，要么基于捕获、视觉或光学机械计数方法，要么基于这些方法。然而，这些方法具有侵入性，繁琐，而且最多只能提供统计估计。在这里，我们成功地展示了一种地面激光雷达（LIDAR）激光扫描仪的应用，该扫描仪可用于远程识别和确定洞穴中栖息蝙蝠的确切种群。LIDAR 精确地捕捉到了栖息蝙蝠的 3D 特征及其在最小光线下的空间分布模式。洞穴的高分辨率模型使得能够对可见区分的 Hipposideros larvatus 及其在洞穴 3D 拓扑内的栖息模式进行精确计数。我们预计，LIDAR 的发展将开辟新的研究可能性，使研究人员能够在洞穴内部表面的地形背景下研究栖息行为，从而促进对洞穴栖息行为的严格定量描述。
