All products are custom-made. Contact us to enquire about product details or to place an order.
Note: Products may require extended lead times to build to order.
Harp Trap
Harp traps, originally designed by Merlin Tuttle, are an excellent way to capture bats in small corridors such as cave entrances, building windows, and even trail corridors. Some species (e.g., Northern Myotis and Eastern Small-footed Myotis) seem to be captured more frequently in harp traps than in mist nets. While setup, harp traps can also be checked less frequently than mist nets because bats can rest safely and in large numbers before being extracted—but always confirm with your permit conditions.
The lightweight and foldable trap packs into an easily portable bag and can be set up quickly by two people. Catch bags and pre-strung lines are handmade. Harp traps can be made to various sizes, but the typical sizes are 1m, 1.5m or 2m wide and 2–3m high (fixed to tripod stand heights).
“Triple-high” Pole System
This extension pole design offers the largest netting option available, allowing three vertically-stacked mist nets to be opened at once. When single-high mist nets or harp traps simply don’t cover enough open air to effectively capture bats, these triple-high pole systems extend to capture those “high-flyers”.
Though triple-high poles with mist nets have been used widely in many countries, Myotistar has fine-tuned some of the components to create this lightweight design that’s easy to use and transport.
Note: Mist nets are not included with the pole system and can be purchased separately from Avinet.
Banding pliers
These pliers are designed to squeeze a bat band to the perfect shape around a bat’s forearm without damaging the wing membrane and so that they are not too open to restrict the finger bones in flight.
We offer 2 sizes of pliers designed specifically to fit the Porzana 4.2mm and 2.9mm alloy lipped bat bands. The small pliers can also be used for 2.4mm bands.
Note: Bat bands are not included with the pliers.
Full Motus Station
The Motus Network is a vast, international collaboration of receiver towers that collect telemetry from specialized radio transmitters affixed to bats, birds, and even insects to track their movements and behaviour. Land and building owners can volunteer to grow the network by hosting a Motus monitoring station on their property.
Myotistar can build and install complete Motus stations, in coordination with Birds Canada—Motus’ managing organization. If you are interested in becoming a host, feel free to contact us to learn about the various configurations (and associated costs) of Motus stations. Generally, you will need a location with dedicated power and Wi-Fi connection for automated monitoring.
Note: All data received on Motus stations are open source in the Motus database. This means that anyone in the public can view what species have been observed at a given station or see the movements of any tracked animal.
Mini Motus Station
Also on the Motus Network, mini Motus stations can be built and registered for local animal tracking that is project-specific. These target smaller areas to see if animals tagged with radio transmitters pass through or use certain habitats. Mini Motus stations are meant to be temporary for the time of the local tag’s battery life, and can be moved around among projects and locations.
Myotistar can install or remove mini Motus stations typically in under an hour, as they operate with a single fixed antenna that is generally in a reachable location.
Note: All data received on mini Motus stations are also open source in the Motus database.
VHF Radio Antenna
These handheld 3-element Yagi antennae tuned for 166 mHz are specifically designed to manually track specialized radio transmitters affixed to birds, bats, or insects in the local landscape.
Important: Conducting research using these items may require permits from one or many agencies. Those permits are your responsibility and must be obtained prior to use of this equipment.