Thermal imaging videos

This collection of videos has been prepared over the period 2014 – present using cameras from Leonardo UK Ltd including Merlin, Horizon and Superhawk. 

Bats of Southern England in the thermal Infrared

https://vimeo.com/1078987749

https://vimeo.com/1078988257

Mammals of Southern England in the thermal Infrared

https://vimeo.com/1078988662

Infrared sensitivity in small mammals 

Greater Horseshoe Bats in the Thermal Infrared

Bryanston is an independent boarding school that owns 400 acres to the South of the River Stour near Blandford Forum. In the late 1700s a large country mansion was built overlooking the river valley on a wooded ridge. It was demolished in 1890, because of damp, except for one wing formerly used as a kitchen. Greater Horseshoe bats were discovered there 70 years ago and since then ‘The Kitchens’ have been developed as a year-round roost by digging out deep caves into the hillside. The site is currently managed by the Vincent Wildlife Trust. Summer bat counts exceed 400 which is testament to the success of the habitat improvement. A BBC 4 documentary “Inside the Bat Cave” will feature the roost and we were commissioned to do the night time filming using our thermal cameras. The roost is behind the thick foliage and protected by a high fence.

The video also includes a lot of other animals that we saw around Bryanston.

https://vimeo.com/471135961

Hunting strategy of soprano pipistrelles

This video has been compiled from the Moot filming session on 13th August 2016 with emphasis on how soprano pipistrelles engage flying insects. In cruise flight at 3.5 m/s the echolocation calls synchronise with the wingbeat at 12.5 beats/second. When prey is located at about 2 metre range the frequency jumps to 2 calls per wingbeat. At about 50 cm the normal call (a chirp of 5.7 ms duration) changes to a short pulse of energy rising to 200 pulses per second (1 every 2.5 cm of flight). This distance is similar to the limit of normal echolocation. The problem is that bats dislocate their ear bones to avoid deafening themselves and it takes a time to restore hearing (thought to be 2-8 ms). So bats should not be able to echolocate when they get close to the prey. They seem to shift to another homing strategy which could be heterodyning the outward and inward signals but we do not know. The video hints that they also use their eyes for terminal guidance since they follow the prey accurately at very close range.