In July 2014 international team of bat researchers from Ukraine and Hungary surveyed bats in Bükk Mountains, the Bükk National Park (Hungary), with special focus of N. lasiopterus. The radio-telemetry field training was also conducted. The main line of development of the project and international co-operation for 2015-2016 has been planned. The focus species was not recorded in Hungary during the expedition. In July 2013 six locations in Russia and one in Ukraine were surveyed by mist-netting. Four teams (15 persons) worked in parallel with the same methodology, conducted 68 mist-netting points and 639 mist-netting hours at total. 1376 individuals of 12 bat species were caught. Two young female N. lasiopterus were caught in different locations: Voronezhsky State Biosphere Nature Reserve, Voronezh region, Russia, and Yakovetskoe location, Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Kiev region, Ukraine. The tissue samples for future genetic analyses were taken. The frequency of occurrence is very low for the Giant noctule, one individual per 600 bats of other bat species. The new records and other available information on the distribution of N. lasiopterus confirm that the species is associated with large areas of old-grown broad-leaf forests.
