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Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan for the Bats of Prespa

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Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan for the Bats of Prespa Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan for the Bats of Prespa Elena Papadatou, Xavier Grémillet, Ferdinand Bego, Svetozar Petkovski, Emilija Stojkoska, Oliver Avramoski & Yannis Kazoglou Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan for the Bats of Prespa Elena Papadatou, Xavier Grémillet, Ferdinand Bego, Svetozar Petkovski, Emilija Stojkoska, Oliver Avramoski & Yannis Kazoglou Prespa May 2011 Copyright: © 2011 Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) ISBN: 978-960-85811-8-0 Reproduction of this publication for educational or other purposes is authorised without prior written permission from the copyright holder provided the source is fully acknowledged. Citation: Papadatou E, Grémillet X, Bego F, Petkovski S, Stojkoska E, Avramoski O, Kazoglou Y (2011) Status survey and conservation action plan for the bats of Prespa. Society for the Protection of Prespa, Agios Germanos, pp 170 Cover photo: Medium sized Rhinolophus bat emerging from its cave roost. Philippos Katsiyiannis. Photo credits in document: Christian Dietz, Torsten Pröhl, Xavier Grémillet/GMB, Ferdinand Bego, Emilija Stojkoska, Yannis Kazoglou, Thomas Dubos, Aggela Georganda, Philippos Katsiyian- nis, Sébastien Puechmaille, John D. Altringham, E. Pa- padatou Produced by: Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) Design: Defrost design Printed by: Technograph Available from: Society for the Protection of Prespa Ag. Germanos 53077, Greece E-mail: [email protected] http://www.spp.gr CONTENTS Foreword ..........................................................................................................................6 Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................7 List of acronyms ............................................................................................................9 Executive summary ...................................................................................................12 Introduction .................................................................................................................13 PART I. Background: bats in Europe ...............................................................17 1. Classification, diversity and distribution .............................................................19 2. Biology and ecology of European bats .................................................................19 3. Threats and conservation considerations ............................................................26 4. Legal protection and conservation ....................................................................... 31 5. Education .................................................................................................................33 PART II. Background: Bats in Greece ..............................................................37 6. Species diversity, distribution and population status ........................................39 7. Ecology .....................................................................................................................39 8. Threats, legal protection and conservation .........................................................40 PART III. Bats in Prespa .........................................................................................43 9. Study area – The Prespa Lakes basin .....................................................................45 10. History of bat research at Prespa ...........................................................................57 11. Data collection: field techniques and analysis methods .....................................59 12. Bats on the Greek side of Prespa ............................................................................61 13. Bats on the Albanian side of Prespa ......................................................................98 14. Bats on the side of the FYR of Macedonia ..........................................................102 15. Synthesis: bats in the Transboundary Prespa Park and its surroundings .....109 PART IV. Research, survey and conservation recommendations ..... 113 16. Recommended research and survey actions ..................................................... 115 17. Recommended conservation actions .................................................................. 118 18. Advisory, communication, public awareness and training .............................133 19. Cooperation at the transboundary level ............................................................136 20. Useful websites ......................................................................................................137 References ....................................................................................................................139 Appendices ..................................................................................................................145 Foreword It was over four years ago when SPP received one ple not only of the importance and wealth of the of Xavier’s most enthusiastic e-mail messages Prespa area but also of the high quality results that informing that he had succeeded in gathering a good cooperation among different partners and group of French volunteers to work for the bats scientists can produce. in Prespa, following a similar voluntary expedi- Besides giving us new scientific data on these tion in 2004. The results were surprisingly good, largely unknown species, this Action Plan also new species were found, unknown roosting and provides important information on conservation hunting places were placed on the map and this activities and mitigation measures that should be encouraged SPP to launch an almost two-year taken to preserve bats and their habitats. Obvi- project aiming at the completion of a Bat Action ously, these activities cannot be confined within Plan at the transboundary level. The group of the Greek Prespa borders. Cooperation among the people involved increased from year to year; first three countries and implementation of specific there was Xavier and the French colleagues and conservation activities in the field are needed in volunteers with Yannis in 2004, then came Elena, order to ensure that this excellent production will followed by Svetozar, Oliver, Emilija, Ferdinand, be put to use. and Panayotis along with many others. Bat work Finally, and above all, it should be stressed that, continued and expanded to the wider Prespa re- reading between the lines in this Action Plan, you gion. They embarked on a journey with quite feel the enthusiasm and dedication of all partici- harsh conditions entering into sometimes deep pants to their field of expertise and to Prespa. Let’s caves and spending many nights out in the field hope that this work and spirit will inspire all of us trying to detect new species or pinpoint threats towards the protection of our little, silent, night- and propose mitigation measures. flying friends, which bear a heavy share of respon- Through these long efforts and rather difficult sibility for keeping a balance in nature for us and endeavour, an exemplary Action Plan has been for our children. produced, which has significantly increased our – until now – limited knowledge on bats in the Myrsini Malakou Transboundary Prespa Park. For the countries Managing Director of the Society for the Protection sharing the Prespa Basin, this work is an exam- of Prespa Acknowledgements This work would have never been achieved with- Myotis brandtii and Plecotus austriacus respec- out the help of numerous field assistants and we are tively. We thank Zoran Velickov for providing free grateful to all of them: V. Arabatzis, J. Boireau, T. of charge the GIS background for the bat distri- Cheyrezy, S. Declercq, N. Deguines, F. Doleson, J. bution maps. The authors and the SPP are grate- L. Dubois, T. Dubos, N. Galand, P. Georgiakakis, ful to the Elliniki Etairia (Hellenic Society for the T. Le Campion, M. C. Navet, S. Puechmaille, V. Protection of the Environment and the Cultural Papadopoulos, A. Trasias, J. Vernusse, N. Xega, A. Heritage) for providing accommodation to the Bojadzi, P. Katsiyiannis, S. Bilionis, many inhabit- French team of bat researchers in 2009 and 2010 ants of Prespa who willingly opened their buildings at the Biological Station at Mikrolimni. We thank to see bats (especially E. Chatzaras) or gave useful P. Katsigiannis for providing the wonderful cover information on bat sites (esp. D. Pitoulis), as well photo and Irene Koutseri for reading through the as volunteers from the SPP and WWF Greece. J. entire manuscript to make final comments and cor- Boireau, T. Cheyrezy, S. Declercq, N. Deguines, T. rections. The present work was funded by the SPP Dubos, N. Galand, P. Georgiakakis, T. Le Campion through its programs titled “Conservation-orient- and S. Puechmaille assisted with echolocation call ed research on Priority Species and Habitats in the recordings and species identification. We thank Transboundary Prespa Park” and “Development of F. Mayer (Natural History Museum, Berlin, Ger- a Transboundary Monitoring System for the Prespa many), and the genetics laboratory of the Natural Park Area”. However, it should not be forgotten that History Museum of Crete for analyzing genetics a large part of the data was collected through activi- samples that helped confirm the identification of ties and expeditions on a voluntary basis. List of acronyms EIA Environmental Impact Assessment Study GNP Galicica National Park GEF/SGP Global Environment Facility/Small Grants Program GMB
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