The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is a large-scale coordinated effort to monitor bat species across North America using standardized protocols and a unified sampling design. NABat was established to address the gaps in knowledge and lack of long-term studies of bat species across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. A key component of NABat’s success is the presence of regional hubs that help coordinate and implement the bat monitoring efforts.
In 2023, the North by Northwest (NNW) Bat Hub was officially launched as a cross-border collaboration led by the Governments of Alaska, Alberta and British Columbia. Biodiversity Pathways leads the initiative, with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute (ABMI) playing a key role in supporting its development. Both the WCS and ABMI provided crucial leadership during the hub’s formation and continue to offer guidance and analytical support.
The NNW Bat Hub is focused on coordinating long-term monitoring of bat populations across the northwest region of North America, and ensuring this monitoring persists into the future. The hub builds upon strong local programs while seeking to increase the efficiency, quantity, representativeness, and integration of data for bats occurring across northwestern North America.
Every year, the hub offers training on bat monitoring protocols and supports data amalgamation, processing, and analysis. In 2025, over 170 sites across the region were surveyed as part of long-term monitoring efforts. Based on this work, trend estimates for bat activity across Alaska, Alberta, and British Columbia are in development. Continuing to add new sampling locations will help improve our ability to detect long-term trends and inform bat conservation planning across the region.
Please contact the hub coordinator Cami (cami.hurtado@ualberta.ca) if you would like to contribute data to the NNW hub or want to learn more about regional bat monitoring and research efforts.
Thanks to the hub’s regional partners: University of Alberta, Alberta Environment and Parks, Parks Canada, BC Parks, BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, Government of Alaska, Wildlife Conservation Society, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the ABMI.
Contact the hub
