Survey of the southern and western Carpathians underground bat habitats

Zoltán Nagy

In Romania, as in all of Europe, the cave dwelling bat colonies has suffered a drastic decline in the latest decades. This was confirmed also through the monitoring fieldwork of the Central European Miniopterus Protection Programme from 1999-2000, which established a decline of almost 90% in the last 30 years for the target species. At the moment there are no exact data about the occurrence of highly cave-dependent bat species in the project area. With the monitoring of the summer/nursery and hibernation colonies, we will obtain an actual database about the populations size, habitat requirements of the species and threats. During fieldwork, we will collaborate with local NGO's, authorities and we will distribute popularization leaflets in schools.