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North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) Master Sample and Grid-Based Sampling Frame

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 27, 2026 | Last Modified: 2020-09-11T00:00:00Z
The NABat sampling frame is a grid-based finite-area frame spanning Canada, the United States, and Mexico consisting of 10-km by 10-km (100-km2) grid cell sample units for the continental United States, Canada, and Alaska and 5- by 5-km (25km2) for Hawaii and Puerto Rico. This grain size is biologically appropriate given the scale of movement of most bat species, which routinely travel many kilometers each night between roosts and foraging areas and along foraging routes. A Generalized Random-Tessellation Stratified (GRTS) Survey Design draw was added to the sample units from the raw sampling grids (https://doi.org/10.5066/P9M00P17). This sampling design produces an ordered list of units such that any ordered subset of that list is also randomized and spatially balanced.

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