Elblag Mountain Park has launched a project of active protection of a valuable species of bat – the western bat. Hanging boxes with holes in trees and buying ultrasound recordings will help in this.
The western bat (Barbastrella barbastrellus) is a critically endangered bat species. It has a characteristic, very dark color. Its habitat is mainly old deciduous groves, where there are many dry and dead trees. For summer hiding places, mops usually choose holes or cracks under raised patches of skin. They spend the winter in underground colonies.
As part of the project implemented by the landscape garden, 80 special hole boxes were purchased to provide artificial shelter for the Swabs. The lack of old trees and natural shelters is one of the main threats of this species. – The boxes were hung in eight places selected in consultation with the Elblag Forest District, including the Bazantarni area and the Kadini-Przybylowo-Leczze forest complex, – said Hanna Crook from the Elblag Mountain Landscape Park. The park also purchased 10 ultrasound recording devices that will be used to monitor the emergence of bats.
The number of mops is decreasing
In the landscape park, there is a large moppa hibernation site in the basement of the Franciscan monastery in Cadini, but every year the number of bats hibernating there is decreasing. The last assessment of the population status of this species was carried out in 2019 in the Natura 2000 habitat area “Erosion Valleys of the Elblag Plateau”. He showed that the condition of population maintenance is bad. It was then assessed that the habitat parameters – including: the number of dry and dead trees – differed from the favorable conditions for the emergence of this caterpillar.
Western MopekShutterstock
For the implementation of the western mop protection project, Elblag Mountain Park received about 20,000 PLN from the Regional Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management in Olsztyn.
Main image source: Shutterstock
