Make sure to READ ALL SECTIONS before performing the steps of the “Processing stationary acoustic data in Kaleidoscope Pro” guidance. Information in these sections accompanies the NABat directions and needs to be incorporated into the steps. 

 

 

Open Kaleidoscope and follow the steps in the “Processing stationary acoustic data in Kaleidoscope Pro” guidance. Listed below is additional guidance and information for following the directions while submitting FBB regulatory data to USFWS.

 

1. Your input directories will be your “Raw” data deployment folders. Data being submitted for FBB regulatory surveys need to be in WAV format. Pay attention to the options within the INPUTS and OUTPUTS of the “Batch” tab and ensure that they are selected appropriately for processing and producing WAV files, not Zero-Crossing (ZC) files (Figure 2).

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2. Use the information below while filling in the Kaleidoscope Pro NABat metadata form. Download the most up-to-date version of the appropriate metadata forms.

 

a) For detailed definitions of the different NABat metadata fields, refer to the “NABat Metadata Fields and Descriptions” PDF. This document provides formatting and accepted categorical values for NABat stationary acoustic metadata. This information can also be found by hovering over the metadata fields in the form in Kaleidoscope Pro with your mouse cursor.
 

b) Use the “FBB_DB_KPro_Stationary_Acoustic_Metadata” CSV template if desired to copy/paste values into the metadata form in Kaleidoscope (may be easier than referencing several data sheets or when redoing a batch process; Figure 3).

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c) Do not include commas in values you input into the metadata form (e.g., no comma before “Inc.” or “LLC” in company names). Extra commas in metadata fields cause upload issues for the project meta.csv (CSV = Comma-Separated Values).

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d) GRTS Cell ID: Determine GRTS ID for each site by using the NABat Grid Cell Finder (noted in the training videos as the Location Obfuscation Tool). It is optional to have the GRTS ID in the metadata spreadsheet if the coordinates are included, but it is needed for the acoustic file names anyway. The NABat Grid Cell Finder can also be found on the quick links to resources page. 

 

e) Survey Start/End Time: These reference the beginning and ending detector activation time. If detector starts recording late, then start time should be listed as the date and time from the first file recorded. If a detector stops recording early, the end time should be listed as the date and time of the last file recorded. Note such incidents in the “Unusual Occurrences” metadata field. Adjust times as necessary for each detector/deployment (i.e., do not just use the same full survey time for all batches unless detectors were all active for that full time). Use the formatting yyyy:mm:ddThh:mm:ss (e.g., “2020-07-15T21:30:00”).

 

f) Land Unit Code: The first 4 letters of the county where the survey was conducted (same code as used in project name; see Appendix 3).

 

g) Nightly Low/High Weather Events: The next bullet (h.) will describe the ways to deal with all the nightly weather parameters, but this bullet (g.) provides guidance specifically for the weather events. To standardize the Weather Events data, select one of the options from the list below to use for these metadata fields. These weather event options are ranked from “lowest” (“Fair”) to “highest” (“Heavy T-Storm”):

 

• Fair

• Partly Cloudy

• Mostly Cloudy

• Cloudy

• Fair / Windy

• Mostly Cloudy / Windy

• Haze

• Fog

• Light Rain

• Rain

• Heavy Rain

• Thunder in the Vicinity

• Thunder

• T-Storm

• Heavy T-Storm

 

h) There are two options for including nightly weather parameters in the metadata:

 

EMBED WEATHER DATA INTO ACOUSTIC FILES DURING PROCESSING 

Within each deployment folder of raw data, separate acoustic files into nightly folders (same naming format that is followed by Kaleidoscope – YYYYMMDD). Replicate the nightly folder subdirectories within the empty Processed folder deployment subdirectories. When using this method, select “None” for “Create subdirectories” under the output menu in Kaleidoscope. Each night for each site will be processed in its own batch. Within a single site, the only differences in the metadata form for each night will be the nightly weather parameters.

 

INCLUDE WEATHER DATA IN METADATA CSV ONLY

Do not pre-emptively create nightly subdirectories within each deployment. Fill in the rest of the metadata form without including anything in the nightly weather parameters. Because full deployments can be processed in one batch you will still select “Nightly” for “Create subdirectories” in the output menu. Weather data will be added to the final meta.csv file created    from data processing; this will not be dealt with in Kaleidoscope.

 

i) Species List: Make sure the name you input here matches exactly with the name of the Species List you created in Section 1.

 

j) Note: Include any additional notes about the specific deployment (or specific night if running batches nightly) in this field if not included in the “Unusual Occurrences” field. Save these notes to add into the NABat Partner Portal later.
 

3. Your output directories will be your empty “Processed” data deployment folders.
 

4. The next steps are in the “Auto ID for Bats” tab of Kaleidoscope. For USFWS FBB regulatory survey data submission, select “0 Balanced (Neutral)” instead of “+1 More Accurate (Conservative)” as suggested in the NABat guidance. Make sure to select the appropriate species for the species classifier based on the county the survey was conducted in (same species as the species list you created in the project in the NABat Partner Portal; Appendix 2).

NOTE ABOUT Corynorhinus rafinesquii

In Kaleidoscope, files auto-identified as (CORTOW) represent calls from (CORRAF), as these two species are considered acoustically indistinguishable and does not occur in Florida. CORRAF is not an option in the Kaleidoscope species list, so CORTOW is checked for data processing

 

NOTE ABOUT Lasiurus borealis and L. seminolus

While Kaleidoscope includes both (LASBOR) and (LASSEM) as options for the species classifier, only select LASBOR. Files auto-identified as LASBOR represent calls that could be either of these two Lasiurus species, as they are considered acoustically indistinguishable. Including both species will result in a greater number of NoID files. When manually vetting for these species, you will use LABOLASE.

 

5. Before clicking “Process Files,” make sure the settings in the “Signal Params” are appropriate for FBB surveys (Figure 4).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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6. If running batches in full deployments (not night by night) and you intend to conduct manual vetting to NABat’s recommendations (manually vet one file per species per night per deployment) – it is best to organize files within the Kaleidoscope file viewer before vetting them.

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a) Open results (id.csv) in Kaleidoscope.

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b) Timestamps should be included in file names. If so, click the “Out File FS” column title (make sure files are organized first recorded to last recorded instead of vice versa – click title again if ordered last to first). Alternatively, you can order by “Date” and then “Time” columns by clicking their column titles, respectively, again ensuring that the files are listed first recorded to last.

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c) Click the “Auto ID” column title. This allows you to sort through files one species at a time with the files in order from first to last recorded.

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