Increasing bat abundance in a major winter roost in central Poland over 30 years

Abstract A bat census in the years 1981–2010 (repeated twice during each hibernation period in January and March) showed upward trends in many populations of bats hibernating in the Szachownica Cave (central Poland). Total numbers of the bat assemblage, which consisted of 11 species, increased withi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:mamm
Main Authors: Lesiński, Grzegorz, Ignaczak, Maurycy, Kowalski, Marek
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/mamm.2011.003
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mamm.2011.003/xml
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/mamm.2011.003/pdf
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Summary:Abstract A bat census in the years 1981–2010 (repeated twice during each hibernation period in January and March) showed upward trends in many populations of bats hibernating in the Szachownica Cave (central Poland). Total numbers of the bat assemblage, which consisted of 11 species, increased within the study period from 178 to 1477 individuals in the first decade to 835–2902 in the past decade of the study, with the highest rates of increase noted in Barbastella barbastellus , Plecotus auritus and Myotis nattereri . Myotis myotis and Myotis daubentonii showed only slight upward trends. In the years 2009–2010, Myotis bechsteinii occurred in markedly higher numbers (up to 24 individuals) as compared to previous years.