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