A new smartphone app has been developed to help enthusiasts capture the ultrasonic chirps of local bats.
The iBats app, which for the purposes of pretending to be Batman, we're going to call the batphone app, can record the sounds of 900 different bat species from around the world.
Once you've downloaded the free iPhone or Android app, you need to plug in an ultrasonic microphone and the app will record the calls that are inaudible to the human ear.
The app is designed for the 700 global members of the volunteer bat-tracking website iBats. Any recordings will be uploaded to the database, where specialist software will identify the species.
Heart monitor for wildlife
iBats project manager Kate Jones says: "Bats are like a heart monitor for wildlife.
"Their presence can tell us a lot about the health of the environment because they have an important role in terms of eating insects and acting as pollinators for many different plant species."
"We hope the iBats app will encourage more people to monitor their local bats and make a contribution to the global conservation of wildlife."
We don't know about you, but that's our weekend sorted. Just enough time left on Friday to perfect that vastly over-exaggerated Christian Bale Dark Knight voice and we're ready for a weekend of bat-tracking.
