1. North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)

2. Purpose Create a continental-wide program to monitor bats at local to range-wide scales Provide data to promote effective conservation decision-making and long-term viability of bat populations across the continent.

3. Goals Develop and maintain a long-term continental program to monitor bat distributions and indices of abundance at range-wide, regional, and local scales.

4. Goals Provide regular analyses and reporting on the status and trends of bat populations to inform managers and policy makers so that they can manage bat populations effectively.

5. Some Important Points Best for larger scale analyses But, can be scaled down Long-term nature – On the order of decades

6. National State, Federal, Tribal Response Plan Conservation and Recovery Workgroup

7. The Process Collaborative International Series of 4 workshop

8. Targeted Species 47 Species – Common to US, Canada, Mexico

9. Monitoring Methods Acoustic Surveys – Mobile Transects – Stationary Points Colony Counts – Hibernacula – Maternity Colonies

10. Sampling Design – 10 x 10 km grid

11. Sampling Design- 10 x 10 km grid

12. Sampling Design Generalized Randomized Tessellation Stratified (GRTS) Sample Spatially balanced approach Flexible – Grid cells can be dropped for logistical reasons – Grid cells assigned weights or inclusion probabilities – Can include some samples outside design

13. Sampling Design Any subset of grid cells is also random and balanced Can “over-sample” selected properties – FS – DoD – NPS – Refuge

14. A Few Examples…

20. “Over Sampling” a Property

21. DoD Cells

22. Colony Surveys Hibernacula surveys – Continue current surveys – 2 Independent surveys – Use NABat protocols Data collection Data submission – No need to follow GRTS draw Searching for new colonies – GRTS order may be useful

23. Stationary Point Acoustic Sampling 2-4 stationary points 4 nights Preferably 1 point/5 x 5 km quadrant Any type of detector except time- expansion or heterodyne

24. Selection of Stationary Point Sites

25. Mobile Transect 25-48 km (15-30 mi) long Secondary roads Safe to drive @ 20 mph Assume 1 pass = 1 bat – No or minimal stops – Don’t want to back track on route Variety of habitats Need to record associated lat/longs

26. Species Assignments - Acoustics Potentially biggest bottleneck Requires knowledge & expertise Investment of time and personnel

27. Species Assignments - Acoustics > 2 ID methods – Auto-ID programs BCID DFA model (Britzke et al. 2011) Echoclass Kaleidoscope Sonobat – Filters (e.g., AnalookW) – Qualitative ID

28. Species Assignments - Acoustics Lowest taxon possible Species groups when necessary Some visual verification needed Frequency (kHz) Time

29. Data Submission Bat Population Database – https://my.usgs.gov/bpd/ https://my.usgs.gov/bpd/

30. Data Submission Data partnerships – Allow NABat access – Control other access

31. Data Sheets Ensure all necessary data collected – Acoustic – Colony counts Will develop apps for tablets and smartphones

33. Acoustic Data Uploaders Will accept spreadsheets generated by – Echoclass – Kaleidoscope – BCID – Sonobat

36. Caveats/Concerns Acoustic identification – Many models, which is correct? – Metadata – Archive original data – Robustness to false +’s and –’s? Unknown hibernacula – Particularly in western NA Better/alternate analyses?

37. Analysis & Products General Technical Report – Draft available now – Final on web -- May Analyses – State, regional, and rangewide analysis – Distribution & abundance State of North American Bats Report

38. Further Info Laura Ellison – ellisonl@usgs.gov Susan Loeb – sloeb@clemson.edu

39. Questions?