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Edition:Final Report (April 2022-April 2023)
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Abstract:Bats are found on every continent except Antarctica and play a crucial role in our ecosystems from pollination to pest control to seed dispersal. Although bats use natural roosts such as trees and caves, many species also use anthropogenic roosts such as buildings and transportation structures. Because of this, a growing number of transportation departments are integrating bat management strategies into structure maintenance schedules. The objectives of this document were to compile what is known about how bats use transportation structures (specifically bridges and culverts), determine what technologies are available for surveying these structures for bats, and report on available methods for removing bats or deterrents for discouraging use during construction and repairs. Here we include a review of literature from journal articles, departments of transportation manuals, federal documents, questionnaires, conference materials, white papers, and gray literature. The literature review revealed that most of what we know about bat use of bridges and culverts comes from states in the western part of the U.S. There is a good understanding of structure material, size, and surrounding habitat that is favorable for western bats, and structure roosting information on western bat species use has been well documented. However, there is not a good understanding and there is a lot less information about how bats use these structures in the eastern states. There are an increasing number of practices, data collection forms, and electronic resources used for bat surveys at transportation structures as this topic of interest has gained popularity in recent years. The use of these resources and continued efforts to survey transportation structures will provide comparable data to the western states. With more federally threatened and endangered bat species in the east than in the west, and several species under status review for listing, the collection of these data are more important than ever.
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