Instructions - 2020 Electronic Submittal Bat Survey Data

Instructions for Electronic Submittal of Bat Survey Data for U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service 2020
In an effort to reduce redundancy, increase efficiency, and minimize data entry errors, the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Ecological Services Field Offices in Region 3 (Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) collaborated to create a single standardized
spreadsheet 1 for electronic submittal of bat survey data by federal permittees to the Service.
Recently issued permit terms and conditions require submission of data in the format provided by
Service Field Offices (i.e., information identified in the standardized reporting spreadsheet). In
addition to a traditional narrative report, permittees receiving Region 3 issued permits will be
required to report their survey data using the “standard” format provided in the standardized
permit reporting spreadsheet (i.e., provision of all spreadsheet information) to fulfill the annual
reporting requirements of a section 10(a)(1)(A) Recovery Permit (Please note: Other Regions
and/or Field Offices may require the same spreadsheet). Permittees are encouraged to submit
their survey data via the standardized permit reporting spreadsheet not only to facilitate
determination of reporting compliance, but also to facilitate improved assemblage of data to
determine impacts on the species. If permittees intend to collect additional data that does not fit
within the format of this spreadsheet, they should coordinate with the Service Field Office for the
study area regarding how to report the additional data 2. If multiple Federal permittees are
contracted and/or subcontracted to conduct bat surveys as part of a single large project, each
permittee is required to separately report the bat captures made under their permit so that the
permittee responsible for each bat capture can be clearly identified. Due to reductions in bat
populations, primarily from white-nose syndrome (WNS), the Service is requesting that
information on all bat observations (i.e., captures, roost counts, and acoustic detections) of all
bat species be submitted, regardless of current Federal status.
Instructions:
The spreadsheet is divided into several worksheets (Capture Site Info, Capture Data, Roost Site
Info, Roost Count, Acoustic Site Info, Acoustic Survey Results, and Accepted Codes). It is
important to start by filling out the “Site Info” worksheets first for whichever surveys have
been completed because the information from these worksheets populates drop-down boxes
Prior to data submittal, permittees should ensure that they are using the most current version of the
permit reporting spreadsheet, which will be available on the Service’s R3 Indiana Bat Summer Survey
Guidance web page
(http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/mammals/inba/inbasummersurveyguidance.html).
2
Currently this spreadsheet is not suitable for submitting results of acoustic driving routes.
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in other worksheets. The “Accepted Codes” worksheet provides a list of valid abbreviations
that are to be used in the Capture Data worksheet. It also includes a key to which fields are
required and which are optional.
Site Info Worksheets (Capture, Roost, or Acoustic): One site entry should be made for each
night of monitoring. For mist netting or harp trapping, a survey “site” is an area containing one
or more nets/traps in relatively close proximity that require surveyors no more than 10 minutes to
walk between during net checks. One GPS point should be taken for each site. The latitude
(LAT) and longitude (LONG) should be entered in decimal degrees (NAD83) for the site either
by taking a point at the net with the most captures or within a centralized location at the site.
Please do not enter the location of each individual net as a site. Should a spreadsheet be
submitted this way the spreadsheet will be returned to the surveyor for revisions.
The project name field should filled in using the name someone would refer to the project if they
were contacting the Service, and not the project number of the surveyor. The state and county in
which the survey was conducted are entered using drop-down menus. Once the spreadsheet is
turned into the Service the GPS points will be plotted and the county provided by the surveyor
will be compared to the county where the point actually is located. Sites where the two values do
not match will be flagged as possible bad GPS points. Surveyors responsible for sites that are
flagged will likely be contacted to verify the location of the survey site.
The type of survey refers to the survey method (e.g., mist-net, harp trap, or acoustic). If
surveyors used both mist-nets and harp traps at a particular site, only one entry needs to be made
in the Capture Site Info worksheet for each date. If acoustic detectors, in addition to either mistnets or harp traps, are used at the same site, one entry should be made for the acoustic monitoring
(and included in the Acoustic Site Info worksheet) and another one for the mist-net/harp trap.
The number of nets or traps, used on that particular date should be entered in the “Number of
Net sets/Trap Nights...” column (e.g., 2 mist-net sets and 1 harp trap set for one night equals 3
net/trap nights) 3. The “Habitat Type or Feature being Surveyed” column has a drop-down
menu with general descriptions of likely monitoring locations. Information on the federally
permitted individual(s) responsible for conducting the survey should be entered into the
designated columns. This information should be submitted even if no bats were
captured/detected during a survey night.
The total net area metric provides a more quantitative measure of trap effort. Total net area is
the square meters of net deployed on a particular night (e.g., two single high 2.6 x 12m nets

3

Double or triple-high nets are considered as one net set.

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would equal 62.4 m2 of net). Table 2 has the net area for some of the more common net setups.
Any area of overlap between nets should be subtracted from the total net area.
Capture Data: Within the Capture Data worksheet information may be entered one of two ways:
either through typing commonly used codes for species, age, sex, and reproductive condition (see
the “Accepted Codes” worksheet), or by using drop-down menus within the appropriate section
(Drop-down Data Entry) 4. The remaining information on captured bats (e.g. weight, right
forearm length, wing score, etc.) should then be completed. If samples were taken, please
provide additional information in the comments field. The “New band or recapture” field
should only be completed if the bat was banded. In the unlikely event that an existing band is
replaced with a new band the new band number should be listed in the Band ID column and the
old band number should listed in the comments. If the bat is radio tagged, the frequency 5 should
be entered in the radio frequency field. This will auto-populate a drop-down menu on the Roost

Count worksheet. The “Site ID” field is a drop-down menu comprised of a concatenation of the
Project/Site/Date/Survey Type information from the Site Info 6. The Site ID that is associated with each
bat captured/detected should be selected. The Site Check column was added in 2017 to verify that the
submitted “Site ID” was valid. It should auto-populate with the project name when a Site ID name is
entered.

If no bats were captured for a particular night of surveying: Type “nobats” in the
species code column, or select “No bats” in the scientific name column. Upon submittal
to the Service, the inclusion of a “No bats” observation for a night of surveying signals to
the reviewer that all of the data has been entered for this site. Failing to include this will
prompt a review letter looking for clarification as to whether data is missing.
Roost Site Info: The roost worksheet requests much of the same information that is found within
the 2016 Range-Wide Indiana Bat Summer Survey Guidelines. Many cells are comprised of
drop-down menus to facilitate data entry. If the exact location of the roost was not accessible due
to terrain, access, etc. the approximate location of the roost should be entered by selecting
“triangulated” in the Location Accuracy column.
Roost Count: This worksheet relies heavily on information from other worksheets in order to
simplify data entry. When a count is conducted only six pieces of information need to be entered:
the species of bat known to use the roost; the “Bat ID” 7 (if a bat was radio tracked to this roost)
If using the drop-down menus, it is not necessary to go back and fill out the abbreviated codes section.
If the bat is tagged with a coded transmitter the frequency recorded should be the radio frequency
combined with the code, e.g., freq: 151.922 code 101. In this example the value entered into the radio
frequency cell should be 151.922101. This value needs to remain a number in order for other portions of
the spreadsheet to work (e.g., 151.922-101 would cause errors).
6
If the drop-down appears blank, scroll up within the drop-down box to find the site name.
7
The Bat_ID is a combination of the radio frequency used to track the bat and project name.
4
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and “Roost ID”, which are derived from information from the Capture Data and Roost Site Info
worksheets respectively. If the radio tagged bat was occupying the tree the night the count was
conducted, select “yes” in the appropriate box; if the bat was absent from that tree, select “no”,
or “unknown” if it’s not known whether the bat is present the day of the count. This information
will be used to track bat movements between roost trees. Finally, the “Date” the survey occurred
and the “Total Emergence Count” observed on that date need to be entered. If multiple counts
occur at the same roost please enter all of the counts, including zero counts, not just the high
count. Should several radio tagged bats use the same roost on the same date, create a separate
entry for each radio-tracked bat (for an example see Table 1.) 8 . The Service should be able to
follow the daily movements of each tracked individual based upon the information within this
worksheet.
No counts or triangulated roosts: In instances where either no counts were conducted at
a roost, or the exact location of the roost was not determined (i.e., the position was
determined through triangulation) it is still necessary to enter data into the Roost Count
worksheet. Enter all of the available information (Species, Bat_ID, Roost_ID, and Date).
For triangulated roosts, the Date should be the date the roost was located, and “Used by
this bat the night of the count?” should be “yes”, the emergence count should be left
blank (see example below).
Table 1. Example of roost count data involving 3 bats, two of which used the same tree on the
first night, but used different trees on the second night.
Bat ID
(if applicable)
150.001-CCW
151.002-CCW
150.001-CCW
151.002-CCW

Used by this bat
the night of this
count? (if
applicable)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

Roost ID
(use dropdown menu)
CC RT1
CC RT1
CC RT1
CC RT2

150.003-CCW Yes

CC RT 3

149.003-CCW Yes

CC RT4

Total
Emergence
Count
35
35
40
2

Date

Comment

5/15/2017
5/15/2017
5/16/2017
5/16/2017

No count
conducted
5/17/2017 Triangulated
5/17/2017

Acoustic Survey Results: Enter each species detected during the survey, and the bat ID software
program used to identify that species. The number of calls identified for each species should
include the total number of calls identified by the computer program plus the number of calls that
8

This is to facilitate the tracking of individual bats.

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were qualitatively identified. If more than one program is used to analyze data from a site, each
species identified should be included on a separate line for each software program used to
identify that species (even though this may create multiple lines with the same species). The Bat
ID Software Program Used column is supplied with a drop-down menu of programs currently
approved for use for summer surveys of Indiana bats 9. The version of the ID software program
used should also be identified in the Version column. Be sure to include the MLE value for all
species, not just the federally-listed species. In order to simplify reporting, surveyors only
need to include those species/categories where the MLE value is significant (i.e., ≤ 0.05) or
if the qualitative review determined that the species was present regardless of the MLE
value. If there are no instances where the MLE value is significant for a particular survey night
select “No bats” on the Acoustic Survey Results worksheet for that night. The number of calls
confirmed through qualitative ID should be indicated for each site by species including the full
name of the individual providing the qualitative ID. As with previous worksheets, the “Site ID”
column is a drop-down menu comprised of a concatenation of the Project/Site/Date/Survey Type
information from the Acoustic Site Info worksheet. The Site ID check column should autopopulate with the name of the project, if it does not, then the Site ID is not valid.
If the acoustic detectors were active for the entire day, for the Start Time and End Time on the
Acoustic Site Info worksheet list the sunset and sunrise times. Including daylight hours when
bats are not likely to be active artificially inflates the level of effort conducted at the site.

DO NOT move columns or adjust the format of this spreadsheet.

Naming instructions for saving files:
•
If all of the surveys for a permit number are on one spreadsheet (this can be multiple
states), save the file as that permit number (e.g., 2019_TE000000).
•
If all of the surveys have the same permit number and but are on several spreadsheets
broken up by states, use the permit number and then list out the state names (e.g.,
2020_TE000000_OHIO_INDIANA, 2020_TE000000_IOWA).
•
If there are multiple permit numbers from the same organization/individual’s name, use
the organization/individual’s name and the state or states (e.g., 2019_Leibii_Inc_OHIO). To

A current list of Service-approved acoustic programs/versions is available at
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Endangered/mammals/inba/surveys/inbaAcousticSoftware.html

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avoid confusion, this should include every survey that organization/individual conducted in that
state.
Please coordinate within your organization to ensure that multiple individuals aren’t submitting
the same data.
For questions about using USFWS spreadsheets contact your local Service Field Office.
Software developers seeking technical assistance with the USFWS spreadsheets should contact
Keith Lott at Keith_Lott@fws.gov

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Table 2. Net area (m2) for commonly used net sets 10.

10

Net length (m)

Single high

Double
high

Double high with
one panel overlap

Triple
high

Triple high with one
panel overlap

2.6
4
6
9
12
18

6.76
10.4
15.6
23.4
31.2
46.8

13.52
20.8
31.2
46.8
62.4
93.6

11.83
18.2
27.3
40.95
54.6
81.9

20.28
31.2
46.8
70.2
93.6
140.4

18.59
28.6
42.9
64.35
85.8
128.7

Triple high with
two overlapping
panels
16.9
26
39
58.5
78
117

Assumes a 2.6m high mist-net with four shelves/panels.

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