Analytic dataset informing modeling of winter species distributions of North American bat species

The fungal pathogen Pseudogymnoascus destructans and resultant white-nose syndrome (WNS) continues to advance across North America, infecting new bat populations, species, and hibernacula. Western North America hosts the highest bat diversity in the U.S. and Canada, yet little is known about hibernacula and hibernation behavior in this region. An improved understanding of where bats hibernate and the conditions that create suitable hibernacula is critical if land managers are to anticipate and address the conservation needs of WNS-susceptible species in regions yet to be infected. We estimated suitability of potential winter hibernaculum sites across the ranges of five bat species occurring in western North America. We estimated winter survival capacity from a mechanistic survivorship model based on bat bioenergetics and climate conditions. Leveraging the Google Earth Engine platform for spatial data processing, we used boosted regression trees to relate these estimates, along with key ...