Mammal Survey Eastern Rhodopes Bulgaria - De Zoogdiervereniging

The Eastern Rhodopes erea near Madzharovo.Surveys with bat detectors focused on finding bat roosts in villages. Several roosts were found, mainlyof Pipistrellus pipistrellus. Roosts of Rhinolophus hipposideros, R. ferrum equinum and Plecotusaustriacus were found too. One roost in a house almost certainly contained both Pipistrellus pygmaeusand P. pipistrellus. Specimens of the first species were observed with a bat detector. Two speciminahowever, caught when emerging from the roost, proved to be P. pipistrellus. One roost of P. pipistrelluswas found in a hollow concrete electricity pole. A rather spectacular find was a roost ofTadarida teniotis in the cliff slopes just north of Madzharovo. A colony of several hundreds of Myotismystacinus was found in a former administration building. Possibly the species involved is M. aurescens.However, this awaits confirmation based upon DNA-research and skull characteristics. A truerevelation, however, was catching a male Nyctalus lasiopterus. During the workshop 20 different batspecies were registered.Checking buildings, bridges, et cetera yielded several roosts of mainly Rhinolophus hipposideros andMyotis myotis. M. nattereri, M. myotis and Pipistrellus savii were found in crevices in bridges.Checking buildings also produced owl pellets. In these pellets the remains of mice, bats, birds andsome other animals could be found. A total of 448 mammalian skull remains were found and the presenceof 6 mouse species that were not detected in an other way during the workshop, was provedby analysing owl pellets. The largest collection was found in an abandoned house in Odzintsi. It yielded148 partly intact mammalian skulls, remains of 20 birds, 7 amphibians en 162 insects (locusts/beetles).Some members of the workshop heard Canis aureus howling. A flash encounter with a carnivore isquite likely with a specimen of C. lupus. Footprints, quite likely those of C. lupus, were found alongthe Arda river near Madzharovo. Both here and in other locations Lutra lutra footprints and spraintswere found in abundance. Aditionally to the recordings of bats and mice, 20 mammal species wereregistered. Furthermore, the workshop produced 97 bird species, 6 amphibian species, 14 reptilespecies, 61 butterfly species and 25 dragonfly species.8 Mammal Survey Eastern Rhodope Bulgaria