March 2024 NABat Newsletter

Save The Date - White-nose Syndrome Virtual Meeting

Join the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and our partners for the 2024 White-nose Syndrome Meeting! This meeting will be FULLY VIRTUAL and will be held June 11 - 13, 2024 from approximately 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (EDT) each day. The program will include presentations in both plenary and poster formats, along with networking opportunities using the virtual platform features.

For more information and to join the meeting virtually, contact Christina Kocer, christina_kocer@fws.gov.

Call for Abstracts: NAWEA/WindTech 2024 Conference

The NAWEA/WindTech 2024 Conference is a technical conference on wind energy held October 28–November 3, 2024 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The event is hosted by Rutgers University and co-organized by the New Jersey Academic Alliance for Offshore Wind. Submit your abstract March 25–May 3, 2024. Learn more about the event and sign up to our elist to get more updates.

Call for Applications: WNS Grant Opportunity

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is offering financial assistance to wildlife and natural resource management agencies and departments of states, the District of Columbia, and federally recognized Native American Tribes for efforts related to the management of WNS. The goal of this funding opportunity is to help our State and Tribal partners fulfill information needs, implement management actions for WNS and susceptible bat species, and actively engage in the National Response to WNS. Successful applications to this funding opportunity will present effective and efficient plans to meet the following objectives: Benefit bat species that are known, assumed, or anticipated to be affected by WNS. Advance the stated priorities of this funding opportunity and the WNS National Plan. Build upon or advance the current state of knowledge of bats. 

To apply, click here. Application deadline May 8, 2024.

Popular Article: Bats of the Midnight Sun

Active in daylight during the Arctic summer and hibernating during the long winter nights, Alaska’s little brown bats are a unique population. Can their niche lives help them avoid white-nose syndrome?

Link to article

Conferences:

Mar 25 - 29: North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Mar 25 - 29: National Military Fish & Wildlife Association Annual Meeting, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

Apr 2 - 4: Midwest Bat Working Group Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Jul 16 - 19: State of the Science 2024, Long Island, NY, USA

September 8 - 11: Northeastern Transportation & Wildlife Conference, Mystic, CT, USA

Events:

April 24: Bats in Bridges Training 2024, Georgia, USA

April 25: Bats in Bridges Training 2024, Georgia, USA

May 1: Bats in Bridges Training 2024 – Agency Staff Only, Georgia, USA

May 2: Bats in Bridges Training 2024, Georgia, USA

Conservation implications of hibernation in mammals

Forest bat activity declines with increasing wind speed in proximity of operating wind turbines

Huddling protects big brown bats from hibernation dehydration | Journal of Experimental Biology

Joint Spatial Modeling Bridges the Gap Between Disparate Disease Surveillance and Population Monitoring Efforts Informing Conservation of At-risk Bat Species

Seasonal phenology of the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) at 60° N 

Summer habitat for the female Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis subflavus) in Tennessee, United States

The Relative Influence of Landscape Features on Maternity Roost and Hibernaculum Selection in Temperate Bats 

Thinner bats to face hibernation as response to climate warming

Widespread-Use-of-Rocky-Outcrops-by-Hibernating-Bats-in-Ohio-and-Pennsylvania

Winter activity of Perimyotis subflavus outside culverts in east Texas

WNS Decontamination Protocol (March 2024)

Biologist/Environmental Scientist

Nexus Environmental Consultants is seeking a Biologist/Environmental Scientist for work in northern Nevada. Duties would include but not be limited to conducting biological surveys (birds, mammals, reptiles, and others) and vegetation surveys (community mapping, noxious weeds, invasive species, and sensitive plants, and water surveys (sampling for water quality, quantity, and flow). Other tasks may be included based on workload. 

This is a full-time permanent position, overtime-eligible. The successful applicant will function as a member of the existing biological team at Nexus. 

If qualified, please submit a resume to info@nexus-env.com. 

Research Technician

The Haase Mammalogy Lab at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN is recruiting 2-3 research technicians to assist our research to capture and track bats on Fort Campbell Military Base in Fort Campbell, KY. You will work alongside a federally permitted bat biologist on interesting and challenging projects, collaborate with a talented and professional team, and gain valuable protected species survey experience. Position dates are beginning of May through end of August, with flexible start/end dates. 

To apply, please send a brief letter of interest addressing the above required qualifications, your CV, and three references that can speak on your handling skills to Dr. Catherine Haase at haasec@apsu.edu. 

Bat Acoustic Survey Technician

The Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife & Heritage Service in Annapolis, Maryland is currently accepting applications for a Seasonal Contractual position (Natural Resources Technician II). The work will involve deploying acoustic recorders to detect rare bat species, collecting detailed habitat descriptions, troubleshooting equipment, managing files, and formatting data for upload into NABat. While acoustic work will be the bulk of this position, there may be the opportunity for additional bat-related field work (i.e. emergence counts, radio telemetry).

To apply for this position, click here.

Biologist

The Department of the Interior is seeking a Biologist, GS-0401-11, to work for the Region 5 Division of Natural Resources. This is a term position expected to last 13 months but may be extended up to a total of 4 years at management's discretion. Possible duty stations include Hadley MA, Smyrna DE, Laurel MD, Cape May Court House NJ, Shirley NY, Chincoteague Island VA, Virginia Beach VA, Woodbridge VA.

To apply for this position, click here.

March's Featured Resource: Code Vignette for Occupancy Model

U.S. Geological Survey Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center staff have released a code vignette for application of a Bayesian single-season, single-species occupancy model for assessing silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) occurrence in Oregon and Washington. The vignette provides a walkthrough of reproducible code for applying the single-season occupancy model to bat occupancy data, as well as code and guidance for evaluating model fit and interpreting results of the fitted model.

To view this software release, click here. For more information, please contact Kathi Irvine, Research Statistician, kirvine@usgs.gov.

In Case You Missed It: NABat R Package (nabatr)

The North American Bat Monitoring Program: R Data Connection Package can be used to extract and upload data to the NABat Monitoring Program through the GQL API. This software is written as a wrapper around the NABat GQL API. Documentation for the database and API can be found at https://sciencebase.usgs.gov/. This code includes the ability to reformat NABat data, upload NABat data, create reports, find GRTS cells, and more (see vignettes in package). This code does not support modeling and analysis of data.

Vignettes and Examples can be used to better understand/utilize the functionality of the code. Users may access data or connect to projects that they have permissions to in the NABat Partner Portal (NABat Website). Because permissions are defined NABat Partner Portal user accounts, users must have a partner portal account to interact with the NABat API. Accounts can be created via the Partner Portal.

If you are new to R, check out this guide to getting started with the NABat R package and this video tutorial that will walk you through the guidance.