My name is Tamás Antal. I work as taxidermist for 15 years in the Hungarian Natural History Museum.
The idea of implementation comes from the fact that I saw my colleagues Gábor Csorba PhD, Tamás Görföl PhD, packing a wide variety of equipment for collecting expeditions.
Metal-framed string traps have always been a problem when packing and travelling. It was too big and heavy. If they wanted to take more, they had to pay a lot for luggage on the plane. In the field, the line strings were constantly torn and a lot of time was lost with constant repairs and replacements.
About the HUNBAT trap:
The 4 bank traps are available on the market at present, which are said to be “light”, weigh around 10-15 kg and can be about 2m in size.
The new innovative HUNBAT STANDARD and HUNBAT EXPLORER trap weigh less than 5 kg, the HUNBAT EXPLORER has a transport length of less than 80 cm, so anyone who has been able to use -and transport a trap based on package size and weight can now carry up to 3 with them, significantly increasing collection efficiency.
The well-functioning aluminium frame trap design developed by my colleagues over three decades had to be fundamentally reimagined. It took two years to develop and improve. We perfected the trap in field testing.
The most important change is the material itself, which is not aluminium but carbon fiber, which weighs only 40% of aluminium, while its rigidity is similar to aluminium.
Another very important change is that the stretched strings are not made of solid fishing line but of a 0.16 mm thick material from micro fibre.
This has several advantages: it beats back the ultrasound of bats less, so the animals cannot detect it up close. The strings do not stretch, they are much stronger than traditional fishing lines, so they do not break. The correct tension is ensured by rubber tabs at the top and bottom, which are integrated individually into the string rods.
The third important change is that the rods are made of extendable-disassembled elements, resulting in a small transport size. Despite the fact that it can be taken apart easily the trap remains stable.
The collecting bag and carrier bag are made of strong, wear-resistant cordura material. Due to the lateral adjustment of the collecting bag, it will not let the bats escape on the edges of the trap.
To raise the trap, I used a twist-lock lock on the legs (as with modern hiking sticks), which is easy for a person to adjust one-handedly. The rod is inserted with button-clips staples.
I solved the assembly with as few screws as possible, so the entire trap contains only 12 screws.
The product contains 98 % of its own-made elements, with custom sizes. I have been producing the trap tube structures with self-developed technology at rates not commercially available. The trap consists of 5 carbon tubes with different diameters and two carbon sheets of different thicknesses.