Description:
WCS Canada’s Western Bat Conservation program addresses threats to bats by generating scientific evidence, informing conservation policy and land-use decisions, closing critical knowledge gaps, and protecting and restoring habitats that sustain bat populations. In the Columbia Basin, we lead critical research that supports the Kootenay Connect initiative, which focuses on protecting and enhancing key areas to establish linkage corridors, promote biodiversity, and ensure suitable habitat for multiple at-risk species. During year seven, WCS Canada’s bat conservation efforts again center on three main activities: monitoring, inventory, and roost habitat enhancement. We contribute to the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat; nabatmonitoring.org) and Biodiversity Pathways NNW NABat Hub models tracking species diversity and relative abundance at continental and regional scales through annual acoustic monitoring of bat echolocation calls using bat detectors. NABat is a continental-scale, standardized monitoring program that assesses bat diversity and populations, reporting every five years on the state of bats with models that evaluate species-specific occupancy changes over time and enable long-term examination of habitats.

Keywords: bats; monitoring; enhancement

Authors:

Organization: Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada

Category: Bats

Focal Area: All

Resource Type: Report

Year: 2026