From 19 to 23 May 2000 the Workshop on identification of bats and localisation of roosts using bat detectors took place in Slovenia, as a part of the project »Bat conservation expert training and data collection in south-eastern Europe«, supported by German government. It was organised by Section for Bat Research and Conservation (SBRC) at Biology Students’ Society and supported by Slovenian Natural History Museum, ZOTKS - Youth Science Movement, Student Organisation at University of Ljubljana and Student Council of Biotechnical faculty. Besides the members of SBRC, participants from Slovenian Natural History Museum, Slovenian Institute of Forestry, Institute for Protection of Natural and Cultural Heritage Novo mesto, as well as Croatian Natural History Museum and Zagreb University attended the course. Under the leadership of Herman Limpens from Holland and with the help of Lothar Bach from Germany, 16 bat workers and biology students (5 participants came from Croatia) had the opportunity to get acquainted with this method of survey. Because the participants had different amount of experience with bat detectors, the workshop offered new information on several levels. The course had begun with the basics of sound and echolocation theory, bat identification, and continued with theintroduction to the survey methods and computer sound analysis. Theoretical knowledge was tested in the field and afterwards the recordings were analysed. Following the flight paths of Daubenton’s bats Myotis daubentonii in Murska šuma was most probably the first attempt to find a bat roost in this way in Slovenia. Despite the moody weather and pretty cold night temperatures, 13 bat species could have been observed during the workshop.

As a part of the project, six bat detectors Pettersson D200 were donated to Slovenian bat workers by the German Government to stimulate the application of this method in bat research in the country. The use of detectors is being co-ordinated by SBRC.

In the year 2000, detectors were used on many field excursions and research camps, where their practical use was demonstrated and bat research promoted. Many night excursions to different sites in Slovenia were organised. Summer research camps proved to be very useful for educating the participants and obtaining substantial amount of distributional data. Members of SBRC took part in Biological research youth camp in the beginning of July in Vogrsko (western Slovenia) and Biology students' research camp at the end of July in Cerkno (north-western Slovenia). This way bat research is promoted among the young people, which often results also in their later individual work. For example, a girl from the secondary school, who previously participated in one of such camps, prepared a seminar on bats for her school friends, where she could show them the detector and demonstrate its use.

Conducting individual research task as part of the Animal Ecology course is included in the graduate study programme of Biology at the Biotechnical faculty in Ljubljana. Students can make their survey on bats, where detectors can be used, as it was in the case of the study of bat fauna in the surroundings of town Turjak (south-eastern Slovenia)*.

Slovenian naturalists’ magazine for youth Proteus announced bats for animals of the year 2000. Children were encouraged to undertake science projects and seminars on these animals. SBRC members helped a young research group, which wanted to use bat detectors in its study. After the demonstration, they could try out the detectors themselves.

Mag. Miran ?as from the Institute of Forestry, who attended the bat detector workshop, showed great interest in the use of detectors to study bats in the forest. He invited some members of SBRC to co-operate in his project, where mating arenas of capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) in different forest types in Koroška (northern Slovenia) were compared also on the basis of other species richness. Bat fauna was investigated on several nights in June, July and August, using bat detectors, and the results presented in the final report**.

The application of bat detectors confirmed that both pipistrelle species, distinguished by call type – pipistrelle P. pipistrellus and pygmy bat P. pygmaeus, live in Slovenia. This raised the number of bat species recorded in the country to 28. Data gathered so far are prepared for publication***. Some observations of the pygmy bat were also made at the workshop, for which our gratitude goes again to Herman Limpens.

SBRC also co-operated in the Central European Miniopterus Protection Programme****, with the help of Slovenian Natural History Museum and financial support of Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. We searched potential roosts as well as monitored the known roosts of the Schreiber’s bat. The detectors were used to identify flying bats in the caves. Already during the workshop, a roost count and the observations of flight paths of Schreiber’s bats nursery colony were conducted at the castle Grad in North-eastern SLO. There were some attempts to find their feeding places later in summer, but unfortunately with little success.

From spring till autumn 2000, Pettersson D200 detectors were used several times in the study of bat fauna at the Protocol estate of Republic Slovenia Brdo, NE from Ljubljana*****. Eight species of bats were recorded and several roosts including a nursery were found. The forest areas formerly used for hunting sport are now proposed for recreational and educational use.

In the wetland Ajševica, in the western Slovenia, construction works to build sport airport were stopped, as the site proved to be the habitat of many endangered plant and animal species. In order to assess the importance of the area for the bats, two bat-detecting excursions were organised in the beginning of June. It turned out that the marshland is of vital importance for bats as well, since we observed 9 species flying and some hunting in the relatively small area. Unfortunately its final destiny is still not known.

In the beginning of September 2000 European Bat Night was organised for the second time in Slovenia. The event lasted two days and included two evening observations of bats in the field. On three locations in Ljubljana, general public had the opportunity to see actual flying bats, listen to their sounds and test species identification abilities. The larger number of detectors enabled the work of more groups at once, and improved the quality of demonstration.

Even though Pettersson D200 detectors were used constantly in the field work, we did face some problems. As they lack the time expansion mode, they can not be used for sound recordings and later computer analysis, which is often essential for correct identification of some species. SBRC owns three detectors with time expansion mode Tranquility II. They have been used for recordings, but because of their age and constant field utilization recordings are low quality and hardly appropriate for analysis.

Another problem we came across is the lack of the professional sound analysis software. At the workshop, the use of the BatSound programme to analyse bat calls was demonstrated. But because no one in Slovenia actually has the programme and the fact that its purchase is quite expensive, the knowledge gained at the workshop is hardly used in practice.

It is obvious, that the donated bat detectors Pettersson D200 enabled more effective educational and research work in Slovenia. The workshop proved to be stimulating for bat research and provided a good knowledge basis for the future work. But as it has to be upgraded constantly, we are hoping for the possibility of organising additional bat detector workshops and perhaps support in purchasing the missing equipment.

We are grateful to the German government for supporting Herman Limpens to carry out the workshop in Slovenia and for donating the bat detectors.

Maja Zagmajster
Klemen Koselj
Biology Students’ Society
Section for Bat Research and Conservation (SBRC)
Vecna pot 111, SI-1000 Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
email: dsb@uni-lj.si , netopirji@email.si

Ljubljana, 16. 3. 2001




* Presetnik P., 2001: Poizkus popisa netopirjev v okolici Turjaka. Individualna naloga pri predmetu Ekologija živali. Oddelek za biologijo, Biotehniška fakulteta. Ljubljana.

** Koselj, K., P. Presetnik, M. Zagmajster, ?. Miloš & M. ?as, 2000: Popis favne netopirjev (Chiroptera) z ultrazvo?nimi detektorji za raziskavo biotske pestrosti na rastiš?ih divjega petelina v vzhodnih Karavankah in vzhodnih Kamniško-Savinjskih Alpah. Final report. Ljubljana.

*** Presetnik P., K. Koselj, M. Zagmajster, 200_. First records of Pipistrellus pygmaeus (Leach, 1825) in Slovenia. In prep.

**** Zagmajster M., K.Koselj, 2000. Central European Miniopterus Protection Programme – Slovenia. Final report. Ljubljana.

***** Koselj, K & P. Presetnik, 2000: Popis favne netopirjev z nekaterimi priporo?ili za varstvo njihovih vrst v Protokolarnem objektu Brdo pri Kranju. Final report. Ljubljana.