How Can I Keep From Singing

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How Can I Keep From Singing 15X38 Pastel and pencil on paper
Sometimes bats chirp or click to get our attention. A bat being fitted with a tiny tracking bracelet will often call out to protest the procedure, express fear, or alert friends. Humans can hear these calls.
Most of the time, however, we can't hear them, at all. When we do set up the equipment we need to record or slow down their calls, we see that they communicate and navigate in very complex ways. They call each other by name, trick prey into becoming dinner, trace the shapes of things around them, make plans, express pleasure and fear, socialize, argue a lot, and even sing.
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The artist and a chirping bat by David Ackerman
Before we had the equipment to hear bats, many of us didn't fully credit them for their high degree of intelligence or full range of emotions. Now that we are paying attention, we see a much bigger picture - their unique place in the fragile ecosystems that support us, sometimes hearing calls for the first, or last, time.
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Leisler's Noctule by Manuel Werner
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Bat calls of Leisler's Noctule (Nyctalus leisleri) / real time
How Can I Keep From Singing uses the pattern of the hymn of the same name, and includes lyrics from the first verse.
How Can I Keep From Singing
My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth's lamentation,
I catch the sweet, tho' far-off hymn
That hails a new creation;
Thro' all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul--
How can I keep from singing?
Bat spectrogram banner and images - Creative Commons 
Banner spectrogram
Leisler Noctule calls
Lesser Noctule
David Ackerman on Flickr