Poster 20: Eco-ethological studies of bats demonstrate the need for a propotion large-scale landscape management to improve their conservation status

In the bat preservation policy, focus has long been put on the conservation of hibernation caves and, more recently, on their maternity roosts. Research developed by our team for more than five years on different threatened species have put in evidence the major interest of a third component of the bats life: food and feeding grounds. The study of the diet and of its seasonal and local variations as well as investigations about the habitat use have shown the major importance of some insect taxa as well as the predominant use of some habitat features.

Different arthropod species such as spiders, cockchafers, Aphodius, tipulids and, in the case of Myotis emarginatus, the blood-fly (Stomoxys calcitrans) play a key-role in the energy balance of the bats. Some of them are very sensitive to the use of helminthicids in cattle. To implement an efficient bat conservation programme, special attention should be paid to this problem. Some habitat features, such as hedges, meadows, deciduous forest edges and some types of deciduous forests are preferred by bats as feeding grounds. The preservation of a semi-open landscape (with hedges, isolated trees, tree rows, ...) or of a convenient forest cover is of particular importance for the conservation of bats. As they forage at distances varying from the immediate vicinity of their roost to several kilometres, strong landscape restoration or preservation measures should be taken at least in a radius of 2 km from the roosts. When designed for bat species, Natura 2000 areas should be large enough to incorporate the feeding grounds and their connective elements.