Bat Population Database

Research Task: 8327CN7.2.0
Task Manager: Laura Ellison

The USGS Bat Population Database was developed to synthesize existing information on bat populations in the United States and Trust Territories. FORT scientists have built this complex relational database system in Microsoft Access to allow entering and sorting information on counts of bats at colony locations by date across a number of fields, including numerous location attributes, management actions, species, information sources, and other characteristics. Data sources include the published literature, theses and agency reports, and State agency files. The database was used to assess the utility of existing information in the evaluation of population trends in bats. Scientifically sound trend analyses are needed to help focus bat conservation priorities and to test hypotheses about bat population trends. The database is available on the Internet (http://www.fort.usgs.gov/Products/Data/BPD/) for those who wish to incorporate past information with new bat population monitoring designs, although sensitive location information is maintained in locked files. A thorough summary and analysis of the data included in the USGS Bat Population Database exists in a book chapter from the proceedings of a workshop on monitoring trends in bat populations (see http://www.fort.usgs.gov/products/publications/pub_abstract.asp?PubID=21329).

 For more information contact Laura Ellison

Related Products

Publications

• Monitoring trends in bat populations of the United States and territories: problems and prospects
• Summary and analysis of the U.S. Government Bat Banding Program
• Bat banding: Trials and tribulations for estimating survival over a landscape scale