Bats in Natura 2000 sites

Inventory of bat populations in Sites of Community Importance (SCIs) according to the Habitats Directive in Romania between 2010 -2011

The project was a collaboration between the Agency of Nature and Forest, The Flemish NGO Natuurpunt and the Romanian Bat Protection Association.

The project was focused on bat monitoring on 28 Sites of Community Importance (Habitat Directive) in Romania in order to can reporting on species and habitats under the EU Habitat Directive for these sites.

In the frame of the project a workshop was organized about the research methods and the use of bat detection equipment, where French and Belgian well known trainers were invited, to instruct the volunteers of the association. At the end of the workshop, 24 volunteers (from all around the country) took part in the data collecting.

Results:
During the survey, in the selected Natura 2000 sites, 28 bat species were identified, from the 32 present in the Romanian fauna.

The selected sites are situated in western, north-western, central and eastern parts of the country, and represents SCIs with different surfaces and characteristics. The altitudinal range of the observation points is between 52-1550m.

The survey results indicate that the method used was suitable to collect data in protected areas about distribution and habitat use of different bat species.

In case of careful selection of observation points to cover the most important and characteristic habitat types of the survey site, the collected information could provide an important data set about bat species diversity and abundance.
From an important number of the selected sites this survey provide the first chiropterological data, and even from sites well-known for their bat diversity, during the study new species were recorded.