The daily life of UF bats will soon be available for all to see.
The bats living in the bat house and new bat barn will be getting their own live Internet feeds, which will be hosted on a UF website.
The information in the kiosks at the nocturnal dwellers' abode will be updated so the public will have a better idea of the lives of these bats.
"We want to make it an active and really useful site, not only for our local interests but for people who are doing bat research worldwide," said Beverly Sensbach, associate director at the Florida Museum of Natural History. "That is one of the nice things about having it available on the web: Anybody can link in and have a look at it if they are interested in bat research or just want to see."
Currently there are three cameras installed in or around the bat house and bat barn, she said.
The cameras are high-definition, shift automatically from color to infrared and are weatherproof.
Normally cameras can function at 105 degrees Fahrenheit, but the cameras needed for the bat house and barn have to operate under the extreme conditions where bats live and must withstand 122 degrees Fahrenheit, said Warren Brown, systems administrator at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The website's main use will be "as a resource for research," said Bill Paine, information technology director at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Paine said the website will act as an informative virtual exhibit of the bats.
While the cameras are currently operational, Sensbach said the website should be open to the public by the end of this summer.
