The bat fauna of Albania, a country located in a Balkan glacial refugium and a Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot, has remained poorly studied although as many as 21 species and representatives of three species complexes had been reported before 2003. It was expected that several new species would be added to the country’s list of fauna, not only due to their occurrence in adjacent regions but to the splitting of already known taxa into sibling species and the discovery of new, cryptic species. Altogether, we recorded 32 bat species in Albania, including all of those previously reported (21) and 11 new species for the country, as a result of field work conducted in 2003–2012. Here, we report on eight bat species including Rhinolophus mehelyi, Nyctalus lasiopterus, Plecotus kolombatovici, Barbastella barbastellus, Myotis brandtii that had not been reported previously in Albania while three species (Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Plecotus austriacus, Myotis mystacinus) had been reported before changes t...

Overview of bat species reported in Albania with the first country records for eight species

Swarming bat activity was monitored at three caves at elevations ranging from 880 m to 1,907 m above sea level in the Carpathian Mountains, using an infrared light barrier with data-logger, a video camera with a night-scope system, and subsequently by mist netting. A total of 6,175 bats of 19 species was captured, and over 70,000 passes through cave openings were registered. Caves differed in bat species richness, sex ratio, abundance of particular species and species composition. Peak species richness was observed in the mid-elevation cave. Bat activity was high in all caves, but declined with increasing altitude. Swarming activity occurred earlier at high elevation than at lower elevations. Activity of boreal-alpine species, such as Eptesicus nilssonii, peaked at the start of the swarming period, that of species typical of lower elevations, such as Myotis emarginatus, peaked in the middle of the swarming season. In a few species, males showed a significant preference for higher altitude caves, in contra...

Swarming of Bats at Different Elevations in the Carpathian Mountains

This paper reports a study of the visitation of bats to Great Litworowa Cave (1,907 m a.s.l., Tatra Mts., southern Poland) during summer and autumn 1999–2005. A total 5,608 bats representing 11 of Poland's 25 species were captured. Myotis mystacinus predominated. Its activity at all times was high. However, the species composition and number of other bats changed seasonally. Swarming activity lasted between July and November, peaking in late July and August. Nightly activity peaked between 22.00 and 02.00 hrs and then gradually decreased toward dawn. Strong male bias was observed. Myotis mystacinus showed regular changes in sex and age ratios. Rare species such as M. bechsteinii, M. emarginatus, and Vespertilio murinus were recorded. This cave is the highest locality of M. bechsteinii and M. brandtii in Europe. Some behavioural observations including copulation, drinking and daylight activity were recorded. The role of swarming activity is discussed in light of the findings. Some observations sug...

https://bioone.org/journals/Acta-Chiropterologica/volume-10/issue-1/150811008X331108/Swarming-of-Myotis-mystacinus-and-other-bat-species-at-high/10.3161/150811008X331108.pdf

Swarming of Myotis mystacinus and other bat species at high elevation in the Tatra Mountains, southern Poland

During late summer and early autumn in temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere, thousands of bats gather at caves, mainly for the purpose of mating. We demonstrated that this swarming behavior most probably leads not only to breeding among bats of the same species but also interbreeding between different species. Using 14 nuclear microsatellites and three different methods (the Bayesian assignment approaches of STRUCTURE and NEWHYBRIDS and a principal coordinate analysis of pairwise genetic distances), we analyzed 375 individuals belonging to three species of whiskered bats (genus Myotis) at swarming sites across their sympatric range in southern Poland. The overall hybridization rate varied from 3.2 to 7.2%. At the species level, depending on the method used, these values ranged from 2.1-4.6% in M. mystacinus and 3.0-3.7% in M. brandtii to 6.5-30.4% in M. alcathoe. Hybrids occurred in about half of the caves we studied. In all three species, the sex ratio of hybrids was biased towards males but the observed differences did not differ statistically from those noted at the population level. In our opinion, factors leading to the formation of these admixed individuals and their relatively high frequency are: i) swarming behaviour at swarming sites, where high numbers of bats belonging to several species meet; ii) male-biased sex ratio during the swarming period; iii) the fact that all these bats are generally polygynous. The highly different population sizes of different species at swarming sites may also play some role. Swarming sites may represent unique hybrid hotspots, which, as there are at least 2,000 caves in the Polish Carpathians alone, may occur on a massive scale not previously observed for any group of mammal species in the wild. Evidently, these sites should be treated as focal points for the conservation of biodiversity and evolutionary processes.

/pdf/hybridization-hotspots-at-bat-swarming-sites-315a0zndz0.pdf

Hybridization Hotspots at Bat Swarming Sites

Background
Thermal gradients along changes in elevation in mountainous environments are reflected by different biotas. Although there have been studies of elevation variation in bat assemblages in summer, winter changes in the same gradients remain unknown.

/pdf/nonlinear-distribution-pattern-of-hibernating-bats-in-caves-186l9omd44.pdf

Nonlinear Distribution Pattern of Hibernating Bats in Caves along an Elevational Gradient in Mountain (Carpathians, Southern Poland)

Since its description in 2001 Alcathoe's myotis (Myotis alcathoe) was recorded from several locations across Europe. Here we describe the first records of this species from Germany, Poland, Albania, and from the European part of Turkey, including the northernmost locality in central Germany (51°23′N, 11°01′E). Compilation of all up-to-date records shows that M. alcathoe has a wide European distribution although it seems to be rare at most places. The habitats where the bat was recorded are natural, moist and deciduous forests with old trees and water streams as can be found, for example, in canyons or forests of alluvial origin. Such habitats suggest that the species probably has a more continuous and wider distribution than currently known and might be expected to occur even further to the North.

Biogeography of the recently described Myotis alcathoe von Helversen and Heller, 2001

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Biogeography of the recently described Myotis alcathoe von Helversen and Heller, 2001