The Steering Committee of the North American Bat Conservation Alliance developed a list of 21 potential threats facing bats in North America. The threats were categorized based on the established IUCN–CMP Threats and Actions Classifications. These classifications provide a framework for organizing threats and conservation actions using a common language. The development of this list was also informed by compiling the materials collected from approximately 400 participants at the North American Joint Bat Working Group Meeting held in Saint Louis, Missouri, March 3-6, 2015. At this meeting, bat experts from across the continent were separated into groups of 8-12 people and asked a series of questions to compile a list of the threats to bats in North America. In 2016, an electronic survey was sent to all regional bat working group participants asking for their input to rank the threats in their region of expertise.
The information from this survey was used to identify the highest priority threats (i.e., those affecting a high proportion of the population or one or more species, and having a large impact on the populations they do affect), to help with prioritizing conservation actions.
