Insect-eating bats play a critical role in our ecosystem by eating and helping to control insects like cockroaches, mosquitoes and agricultural pests.
However, insect-eating bats in New South Wales are in decline. They are under threat from habitat loss, human activities and climate change. Of the 34 species in New South Wales, 18 are listed as threatened or are thought to be extinct.
Bats in Backyards is a citizen science project contributing valuable data to help save some of New South Wales's rarest insect-eating bats from extinction.
With large gaps in the known habitat requirements and distribution of these threatened species, we need to learn more to better protect them.
How you can help
Expression of interests in the Bats in Backyard project are currently closed. Please check back in from October 2026 to register your interest.
During cooler months, insect-eating bats are a lot less active and often enter longer periods of torpor to manage the energy demands of a cooler season and lower insect supply. The Bats in Backyards project is also conserving energy over this period and taking a break from sending out bat detectors until October 2026. This gives the project team time to analyse the thousands of bat calls recorded by the hundreds of landholders who participated over the summer. Thank you to all those landholders.
You can register again from October 2026 to survey insect eating bats on your property using a bat detector. We provide the equipment and instructions you need to record echolocation calls over 5 nights. We will analyse the calls and send you a report detailing:
- the bat species detected
- their preferred habitat and food
- recommended actions for bat protection and conservation on your land.
More about Bats in Backyards citizen science
Insect-eating bats are among only a few groups of species, dolphins and whales too, that use echolocation to navigate, hunt and communicate with each other.
They produce sound waves, called 'calls', at frequencies above human hearing, they listen to the echo, and then determine the size, shape and texture of objects in their environment.
Echolocating bats can detect the flap of a moth wing over 7 metres away and can effortlessly navigate and manoeuvre in pitch black.
Each species makes a slightly different call sound at a slightly different frequency, enabling scientists to identify the species making the call.
Bats in Backyards scientists analyse the high frequency calls recorded by participating citizen scientists and can determine which bat species have been detected in each participant's backyard.
Bats in Backyards has now finished its third monitoring season.
Results from all previous seasons are summarised in our latest Bats in Backyards infographic (PDF 393KB).
For any teachers and educators who would like to participate in Bats in Backyards as part of an education program, please email the Bats in Backyards team at [email protected] for resources, advice and curriculum links.
Our partners
The Bats in Backyards project is a collaborative effort between citizen scientists, the NSW Government Saving our Species program, the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Sydney University, and Impact Ecology.
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Eastern cave bats (Vespadelus troughtoni). -
Eastern false pipistrelle (Falsistrellus tasmaniensis). -
Greater broad-nosed bat (Scoteanax rueppellii). -
Large bent-winged bat (Miniopterus orianae oceanensis).