In response to the multitude of threats facing bat populations in North America, the National Park Service has been collaborating with other management agencies and bat conservation organizations to develop coordinated bat population monitoring efforts, such as the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat). Although there may be different research or management questions within a specific park or other managed lands, use of common methods for collecting and managing data allows for integration of information on bat species distributions and populations across broader geographic scales.
The NPS Bats Acoustic Survey Database and associated Guidance for Conducting Acoustic Surveys for Bats are available for use by NPS staff and partners to help facilitate coordinated acoustic surveys of bats in parks and other lands. These tools were developed by the NPS Biological Resources Division (BRD) and the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Division (IMD) with contributions from partners within and outside NPS.
Download the database and guidance document.
The primary purpose of this database and guidance document is to provide preliminary (version 1) recommended practices for conducting acoustic surveys for bats. A user's manual for the Microsoft Access (2010 or more recent) NPS Bats Acoustic Survey Database version 1.7 is also included. The database is designed to be flexible and assist users in managing call data and associated information collected for a variety of purposes such as bat species inventories, habitat use surveys and for integration of data into regional- and national-scale programs like the Bat Acoustic Monitoring Portal (BatAMP) and NABat. The database and guidance document is not intended to be comprehensive or static and will be reviewed and updated as new information and techniques become available and used in the field.
Last updated: October 11, 2016