Broadly Applicable Tracking System

The Broadly Applicable Tracking System, or BATS, is a small, lightweight tool that scientists use to track animal movements. It is shaped like a backpack and glued onto the back of a bat or other small animal. It contains GPS and wireless internet equipment that allow the scientists track the animal's movements.<ref name="Eureka">Ohio State University (April 2, 2020). "Scientists develop 'backpack' computers to track wild animals in hard-to-reach habitats". Eurekalert. Retrieved April 4, 2020.</ref><ref name="SciTimes">"Fingertip-size "Backpack" Computers Used to Track Tiny Animal's Social Behavior". Science Times. April 3, 2020. Retrieved April 7, 2020.</ref>

The scientists who invented BATS differentiate it from other systemss because it is lighter, requires less power, and can track animals even inside caves or hollow trees.<ref name="PLOS">Simon P. Ripperger; Gerald G. Carter; Rachel A. Page; Niklas Duda; Alexander Koelpin; Robert Weigel; Markus Hartmann; Thorsten Nowak; Jörn Thielecke; Michael Schadhauser; Jörg Robert; Sebastian Herbst; Klaus Meyer-Wegener; Peter Wägemann; Wolfgang Schröder-Preikschat; Björn Cassens; Rüdiger Kapitza; Falko Dressler; Frieder Mayer (April 2, 2020). "Thinking small: Next-generation sensor networks close the size gap in vertebrate biologging". PLOS Biology. PLOS. 18 (4): e3000655. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000655. PMC 7117662. PMID 32240158.</ref> BATS can be made on a 3D printer, and it is so light that it does not slow down small bats when they fly.

BATS falls off the animal's back after about fourteen days. Scientists then collect fallen BATS to reuse the parts.

Scientists have used BATS to show that vampire bats form social bonds when being kept by humans that they remember after being released.<ref name="Eureka" />

Name

Scientists named the tool "broadly applicable tracking system" because they believe it can be used in a broad range of animals: bats, rodents, amphibians and reptiles.<ref name="Eureka" /> As of April 2020, BATS has only been used on bats.

Invention

The team that invented BATS includes scientists from the Museum of Natural History in Berlin and universities in Germany and Ohio State University.