North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)

Core Team & Supporters Susan Loeb, USFS-SRS Jeremy Coleman, USFWS Laura Ellison, USGS Tom Rodhouse, NPS Tom Ingersoll, DoD Cori Lausen, WCS Canada Wayne Thogmartin, USGS Kathi Irvine, USGS John Sauer, USGS Jonathan Reichard, USFWS

The Need to Monitor 1)Bat Banding Program (BBP) – US Biological Survey/USFWS

The Need to Monitor 1)Bat Banding Program (BBP) US Biological Survey/USFWS 2) Endangered Species Monitoring

The Need to Monitor 1) Bat Banding Program (BBP) US Biological Survey/USFWS 2) Endangered Species Monitoring 3) Estes Park

National State, Federal, Tribal Response Plan

National Plan Working Groups

Goal 1: Develop and validate rapid-assessment monitoring plans to determine differences in susceptibility among species, and identify which species are most vulnerable to extinction due to WNS.

Loeb & Winters 2013 Humphries et al Indiana Bat Summer Distribution Little Brown Bat Winter Distribution

North American Bat Monitoring Program -- NABat Vision: A coordinated effort that promotes effective decision-making and long-term viability of NA bats Mission: Provide architecture for coordinated bat monitoring to support local, regional and range-wide inferences about trends in bat populations and abundances

North American Bat Monitoring Program -- NABat Vision: A coordinated effort that promotes effective decision-making and long-term viability of NA bats Mission: Provide architecture for coordinated bat monitoring to support local, regional and range-wide inferences about trends in bat distributions and abundances

NABat Fundamental Question: How do trends in NA bat distributions & abundances vary over geographic extents and time periods in relation to WNS, wind energy, CC & conservation actions? Application: Evaluation of extinction risk and population status at local and regional scales to support conservation planning

NABat Fundamental Question: How do trends in NA bat distributions & abundances vary over geographic extents and time periods in relation to WNS, wind energy, CC & conservation actions? Application: Evaluation of extinction risk and population status at local and regional scales to support conservation planning

The Process Collaborative International Series of 4 workshop

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

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

Sampling Design- 10 x 10 km grid

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

Sampling Design Any subset of grid cells is also random and balanced Can “over-sample” DoD lands

Response Design

Respose Design-Acoustics km transect -2 nights point surveys -4 nights

Response Design-Colony Counts Short-term approach – Strengthen current monitoring efforts by states – Standardized protocols & co-variates – No attempt to fit into grid Long-term approach – Use grid to search for new colonies

Implementation

Grid Assignment Example

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?

Data Management Bat Population Data (BPD) Project – USGS, Fort Collins –

Data Management Data Partnerships – Allow NABat access – Restrict other access

Analysis & Products Plan General Technical Report Analyses – State, regional, and rangewide analysis – Distribution & abundance State of North American Bats Report