Results of the work of the Kyiv Bat contact-centre in 2012–2015

• Main Author: Lena Godlevska
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. National Museum of Natural History 2015-12-01
• Series: Праці Теріологічної школи
• Subjects: bats; monitoring; conservation; rescue; rehabilitation; contact-centres
• Online Access: http://terioshkola.org.ua/library/pts13-research/pts13-12-godlevska-bat-rehab.pdf
• ISSN: 2312-2749; 2074-2274

During the period from 25.11.2012 to 31.12.2015, ca. 500 calls were received: from Ukraine (85 settlements of 24 administrative provinces and AR Crimea, 482 calls), Russia (5 settlements of 5 provinces, 5 calls) and Kyrgyzstan (1 settlement, 1 call); a few more were not territorially attributed. As for the previous working period, calls concerned such situational categories: 1 and 2) what to do with bats found (on the ground, in a building) in winter and during a warm season of a year; 3) what to do with a colony in a building; 4) other. The majority of calls were received during winter seasons. In 300 call-cases (61 % of the general number) animals were identified to species: most of them concerned Eptesicus serotinus (36 % of the general number of calls with distinguished species) and Nyctalus noctula (34.4 %); then, Pipistrellus kuhlii (16.0 %) and Vespertilio murinus (10.3 %); records of other species, Myotis mystacinus s. l., Plecotus auritus, and P. austriacus, are solitary (in sum, 3.4 %). Pipistrellus kuhlii was recorded for the first time in Volyn and Lviv provinces; N. noctula was recorded for the first time in winter in Zhytomyr, Rivne, Chernivtsi, and Ivano-Frankivsk provinces; V. murinus was firstly recorded in winter in Vinnytsya province. The winter occurrence of this species in AR Crimea was confirmed by a contact record. The results confirmed the efficiency and the potential of contact-centres as an instrument for faunistic research, monitoring and conservation of bats.