Mammal Survey Eastern Rhodopes Bulgaria - De Zoogdiervereniging

Mehely’s horseshoe bat and Blasius’s horseshoe bat- Rhinolophus mehelyi and R. blasiiNumber of records — 5 localities, 1 - 600 exx.Type of records — bat-detector, visits to caves.Status and distribution — relatively common, though restricted to certain areas.Special notes — these middle-sized Rhinolophid species are difficult to distinguish fromeach other in the caves without catching them (which has not been done,to avoid disturbance); both species live in the same caves in high numbers.Habitat — no foraging bats have been surveyed, probably dry rocky mountainsideswith desert bush vegetation.Roosting preference — in caves with a mild climate; some known caves with large colonies havebeen visited. In cave Prilepnata, near the village Ribino, Kardjali district,a colony of appr. 30 spec was found, mixed with appr. 30 Rh. ferrumequinum.In cave Aina Ini, also near Ribino, many thousands of bats werepresent, of which most of them medium-sized Rhinolophus species(appr. 6,000).European free-tailed bat - Tadarida teniotisNumber of records — 1 - 2 exx. in 3 localities, one roost.Type of records — bat detector.Status and distribution — the species was not known in the area until summer 2001.Special notes — on the last evening of our stay, we located a roost in a crevice of a steeprocky slope Kovan Kaja along the river, 1 km out of Madzharovo. Theday after, 20 - 30 departing bats were visually counted. It is the firstrecord of a summer roost in rocks in Bulgaria. We have not been able toclimb up to inspect these crevices, but later in september one bat wasdetected and photographed (pers.comm. T. Ivanova, K. Spoelstra).Habitat — wide and open areas above the river, feeding on insects along steeprocky mountainsides with bush vegetation.Roosting preference — one roost (20 - 30 exx.) was found in a crevice or crevices in a steeprocky mountain slope, 100-150 m above the river.LiteratureOur visit to the area revealed some new data. They are published in the following paper:Horacek, I., Ivanova, T., Benda, P., Hanak, V., Cerveny, J., Gaisler, J., Gueorguieva, A., Petrov, B.,Vohralik, V. (in print). Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) of the Eastern Maditerranean. Part 3. Review ofbat distribution in Bulgaria. - Acta Soc. Zool. Bohem., 67: (2003).24 Mammal Survey Eastern Rhodope Bulgaria