Mammal Survey Western Rhodopes Trigrad Bulgaria
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MAMMAL SURVEY WESTERN RHODOPES TRIGRAD BULGARIA 2013 RAPPORT 2014.21 Nijmegen, juni 2014 Uitgave van de Veldwerkgroep van de Zoogdiervereniging 2 MAMMAL SURVEY WESTERN RHODOPES, TRIGRAD BULGARIA 2013 Chief Editors Lily Vercruijsse Kees Mostert Associate Editor Svetlana Miteva Authors Jan Boshamer Carolien van de Graaf Frank van der Knaap Ineke Kroes Kees Mostert Bart Noort Carola van den Tempel Lily Vercruijsse Jan Wondergem Translations Edu Goossens Eric Thomassen Maps Bart Noort Illustrations Jan Boshamer Ed Goossens Ineke Kroes Kees Mostert Lars Soerink Lily Vercruijsse David de Wit Uitgave van de Veldwerkgroep van de Zoogdiervereniging Rapport 2014.21 Nijmegen, juni 2014 ISBN/EAN 978-90-79924-34-9 3 Alle publicaties van de Veldwerkgroep kunnen kosteloos worden gedownload van de website: http://www.zoogdiervereniging.nl/veldwerkgroep All publications of the Field Study Group can be downloaded free of charge from the website: http://www.zoogdiervereniging.nl/fieldstudygroup 4 SUMMARY by Kees Mostert In the summer of 2013, the annual Field Study Group mammal study camp abroad took place (for the second time) in Bulgaria. This time we visited the Western Rhodopes, a karst landscape including mountain peaks reaching up to 2000 meters, steep and narrow valleys and extensive cave systems. A large part of this area is wooded, predominated with spruce forests, but also pastures at high altitude where sheep and cows graze. One of the interesting bird species in the area is the Capercaillie. The Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds has launched a project to preserve this species for the region. Research is being done on the habitat of the species, including a survey of plant and animal species. The Capercaillie is used as an ambassador for this habitat. The Field Study Group could take part in the mammal fauna investigations. There were other ongoing research projects focused on the wild goat and telemetric research on bears. The mammal survey was focused mainly on the wider surroundings of the valley of the small village of Trigrad. The valley begins at about 1000 meters and rises up to over 2000 meters near the Greek border. Towards the north the altitude drops rapidly, and here deciduous forest is present at a large scale. Virtually all resources available during the camp were used to gather as much information as possible about the occurrence of mammal species. One important activity was mist netting bats in as many different biotopes as possible. Usually small watercourses or other sorts of surface water were chosen because this is where lots of bats are present to drink or forage. This survey method produced eleven species of bats. Particularly interesting catches were those of a few Barbastelles, Leisler’s bats, and Grey long-eared bats. Caves are abundant in the Western Rhodopes. One of the biggest caves, called the Devil’s throat, was within walking distance of our accommodation. During the daytime many groups of bats (mostly Schreiber’s bats) were visible but it became clear that the largest part of the cave was concealed. This was confirmed during an evening count at the entrance of the cave. Within a time of 15 minutes no less than 530 emerging bats were counted (of at least 6 species). At the entries of other (much smaller) caves bats were successfully caught with mist nets. During one particular night 12 bat species were caught. The most important catches were those of three Greater noctule bats. This species had not been found before in this region. By searching a great number of the deserted buildings found in the villages, roosts were found of several bat species. In most cases, the species concerned was Lesser Horseshoe bat, while incidentally Geoffroy's bat, Common long-eared bat and Common pipistrelle were found. Both during the day and night beautiful observations were recorded of Red fox, Forest dormouse, Fat dormouse and European roe deer. Through finds of tracks and trails, the presence of Pine marten, Stone marten and Otter was also confirmed. One of the highlights of the camp was the observation of a Wild cat, on the same evening an animal was captured by a camera trap. Thanks to the camera trap, the characteristics of the animal could be closely examined. The research with live traps was a major part of the camp and served an ongoing investigation into the biodiversity of the habitat of the Capercaillie. Consequently the traps had to be placed in coniferous forests and rocky areas, which are difficult to reach. These areas were swarming with Wood mice and Yellow-necked mice. Water shrew, Common pine vole and Bank vole were among the other small mammals that were caught. Many traps were also placed in trees. This resulted in catches of Fat dormouse, the coveted Forest dormouse and even a Wood mouse. The Forest dormouse however had been observed earlier on sight, with the use of a flashlight during a mist net session. 5 The use of camera traps takes up an increasingly important place during the summer camp. Many hundreds of photographs and lots of video were recorded in at least eight different locations. We were not disappointed by the results of this effort. Beautiful pictures were collected of Otter, Stone marten, Pine marten, Fat dormouse and Forest dormouse. Some small mammals, such as Bank vole, Water vole and Yellow-necked wood mouse were visible in the footage, which was surprising. Consequently the presence of fifteen different mammal species could be determined through the use of camera traps. In all, the presence of 45 mammal species in this Natura-2000 area in the Western Rhodopes was confirmed. By combining all the different survey methods, a large number of observations were gathered. Besides those of mammals, more observations were collected of birds, amphibians, reptiles and Participants summercamp, Bulgaria 2013 Photo: David de Wit a few insect groups. The area was especially rich in butterflies and even sightings of some endemic species were collected. Participants: 1 Jan Wondergem, 2 Bennie Harmsen, 3 Lily Vercruijsse, 4 Carolien van de Graaf, 5 Nedko Nedyalkov, 6 Kees Mostert, 7 Jaap van Wingerde, 8 Ed Goossens, 9 Lia Koster, 10 Alfred van der Zwam, 11 Odile Schmidt, 12 Jan Piet Bekker, 13 Carola van den Tempel, 14 Stoian Goranov, 15 Jan Boshamer, 16 Bart Noort, 17 David de Wit 18 Floris Klein, 19 Anne Nagel 20 Ineke Kroes, 21 Lars Soerink, 22 Frank van der Knaap 23 Slaveia Stoycheva Not on the picture: Ognian Todorov 6 Scientific name English name Dutch name Sighting Catch Finding (dead) Batdetector Batrecorder Tracks In owl pellet Cameratrap Northern White-breasted Erinaceus roumanicus Oostelijke egel Hedgehog w w w Sorex araneus Common Shrew Gewone bosspitsmuis w w Neomys fodiens Water Shrew Waterspitsmuis w Crocidura suaveolens Lesser White-toothed Shr Tuinspitsmuis w Talpa europaea European Mole Mol w Rhinolophus ferrumequinem Greater Horseshoe Bat Grote hoefijzerneus w w Rhinolophus hipposideros Lesser Horseshoe Bat Kleine hoefijzerneus w w w Rhinolophus euryale Mediterranean horseshoe bat Paarse hoefijzerneus w Myotis cappacinii Long-fingerd Bat Cappacini's vleermuis w w w Myotis daubentonii Daubenton’s Bat Watervleermuis w w w Myotis emarginatus Geoffroy’s Bat Ingekorven vleermuis w Myotis mystacinus Whiskered Bat Baardvleermuis w Myotis myotis Greater Mouse-eared Bat Vale vleermuis w w Myotis blythii Lesser Mouse-eared Bat Kleine vale vleermuis w Myotis bechsteinii Bechstein’s Bat Bechsteins vleermuis w Pipistrellus pipistrellus Common pipistrelle Gewone dwergvleermuis w w Hypsugo savii Savi’s pipistrelle Savi's dwergvleermuis w w Nyctalus leislerii Leisler's bat Bosvleermuis w Eptesicus serotinus Serotine Laatvlieger w w Nyctalus noctula Noctule Rosse vleermuis w Nyctalus lasiopterus Greater Noctule Grote rosse vleermuis w w Barbastella barbarstellus Barbastelle Mopsvleermuis w Plecotus auritus Common long-eared bat Gewone grootoorvleermuis w Plecotus austriacus Grey long-eared bat Grijze grootoorvleermuis w Vespertilio murinus Parti-coloured bat Tweekleurige vleermuis w w Miniopterus schreibersii Schreiber’s bat Schreibers vleermuis w w w Tadarida teniotis European free-tailed bat Bulvleermuis w Lepus europaeus Europaean Hare Haas w w w Sciurus vulgaris Red Squirrel Eekhoorn w w w Myodes glareolus Bank Vole Rosse woelmuis w Arvicola terrestris Watervole Woelrat w w w Microtus levis Sibling Vole Oostelijke veldmuis w w Microtus subterraneus Common Pine Vole Ondergrondse woelmuis w Apodemus flavicollis Yellow-necked wood Mouse Grote bosmuis w w w Apodemus sylvaticus Wood Mouse Bosmuis w w w w w Rattus norvegicus Brown Rat Bruine rat w Glis glis Fat Dormouse Relmuis w w w w Dryomys nitedula Forest Dormouse Bosslaapmuis w w w w Vulpes vulpes Red Fox Vos w w w Felix sylvestris Wildcat Wilde kat w Martes martes Pine Marten Boommarter w w Martes foina Stone Marten Steenmarter w w w Lutra lutra European Otter Otter w w Sus scofra Wild boar Wild zwijn w Capreolus capreolus European roe deer Ree w w w Table 0.1 Mammal species observed in the Western Rhodopes, Trigrad, Bulgaria 2013. 7 8 INDEX SUMMARY 5 1 INTRODUCTION 10 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA OF STUDY 12 3 LIVE TRAP SURVEY 15 3.1 Survey methods 15 3.2 Results 17 4 TREE TRAP SURVEY 18 4.1 Survey method 18 4.2 Locations 18 4.3 Results 21 4.4 Evaluation 21 5 BAT SURVEY 22 5.1 Mist net captures 22 5.2 Roosts 26 5.2.1 Bats in old buildings 26 5.2.2 Caves 27 5.3 Bat detector observations 28 5.3.1 Introduction 28 5.3.2 Method 28 5.3.3 Results 28 5.3.4 Summary 31 6 CAMERA TRAPS 32 6.1 Survey method 32 6.1.1 Camera and settings 32 6.1.2 Lures 32 6.2 Results 33 6.3 Recorded species 35 6.4 Diurnal and nocturnal species 36 7 OTHER MAMMAL OBSERVATIONS 38 8 OTHER TAXONOMIC GROUPS 41 8.1 Birds 41 8.2 Amphibians and reptiles 44 8.3 Diurnal butterflies 45 8.4 Dragonflies 48 9 REFERENCES 49 APPENDICES 51 Appendix 1 Habitat descriptions of live trap locations Appendix 2 Maps per bat species caught in mist nets 9 1 INTRODUCTION by Lily Vercruijsse Bulgaria was visited for the second time in the history of Field Study Group summer camps.