Vleermuizen gaan achteruit in Vlaanderen: resultaten van de rapportering 2013 van de Europees beschermde soorten en habitattypes

Daan Dekeukeleire, Geert De Knijf, Kris Boers, Ralf Gyselings, Desiré Paelinckx

    Research output: Contribution to journalA2: Article in a journal with peer review, not included in A1peer-review

    2219 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Bats are an endangered group of mammals and populations of several
    species have been declining for decades in Europa. Consequently
    all species are listed on the European Habitats Directive. One of the
    obligations of this Directive is that member states must report on the
    conservation status of the species and habitats (article 17). In this
    article we discuss the conservation status of the bat species in the
    Flemish region.
    The assessment of the conservation status is based on the range, the
    size and the trend of the population, the habitat and the future prospects
    for each species. Although bats are elusive animals and data is
    sparse, we can conclude that only five species have a favourable conservation
    status. Since the implementation of the Habitats Directive
    one species, the Barbastelle bat has gone extinct, while the ranges of
    Geoffroy’s bat, Pond bat and Greater mouse-eared bat have markedly
    decreased. Also more common species, such as Daubenton’s
    bat and Noctule, are decreasing. The big seasonal difference in the
    trends and numbers of population of Geoffroy’s bat and Pond bat are
    striking. Numbers of both species are increasing in protected hibernation
    sites, but summer populations are decreasing and are under
    great pressure. This shows that caution is needed when interpreting
    the data form hibernation census counts. For an adequate monitoring,
    more data on the summer populations is needed. Conservation
    measurements need to take all elements used by bats in their complex
    life-cycles into account: summer roosts, hibernation and swarming
    sites, foraging areas and the connections between these.
    Original languageDutch
    JournalNatuur.Focus
    Volume13
    Issue number2
    Pages (from-to)59-65
    Publication statusPublished - 1-Jul-2014

    Taxonomic list

    • mammals (Mammalia)
    • bats (Chiroptera)

    Policy

    • Habitats Directive
    • reporting

    Geographic list

    • Flanders

    Cite this