From 3-6 March 2015, for its 20th annual meeting, SBDN participated in the first ever North American Joint Bat Working Group meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. The Midwest Bat Working Group, Western Bat Working Group, and SBDN met jointly, along with colleagues from Mexico and Canada. Over 340 people attended this historic meeting, which included plenary sessions on continental conservation for bats, protections and status updates for bats at risk, and acoustics. This meeting also introduced the NA Bat monitoring program and the North American Bat Conservation Alliance between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The regional working groups held business meetings for their members and there were also open meetings on the recovery of Indiana bats and gray bats. The poster session included almost 50 posters and was a great opportunity for students to network with professional bat biologists. The final day of the meeting was devoted to the 25th Colloquium on the Conservation of Mammals. Over 45 speakers presented on topics such as white-nose syndrome in bats, acoustics, genetics, white-tailed deer ecology, and Carolina flying squirrels. SBDN presented the Best Overall Paper award to Chad Williamson and the Best Bat Paper to Daniel Istvanko. The Best Poster award went to Josiah Maine.

3.5.2015 Joint Batters