The activity of bats in the Badínsky prales primeval forest.

Primeval forests with their large heterogeneity with regard to composition of tree species, age of trees or canopy coverage are excellent locations for studying various animals, especially bats. In Slovakia, where primeval forests comprise just 0.48% of total forest area any coherent knowledge about basic composition of bat species is lacking. To contribute to knowledge about the occurrence of bat species in Slovakia's natural (primeval or old grown) forests, this study presents a first summary overview of bat species composition with regard to vertical utilization of their foraging habitat. We collected data in the Western Carpathian (Kremnické vrchy Mts) in old-grown primeval beech forest (>200 years) using the passive automatic bat-detector. The device was set up to the tree trunk in 5, 10 and 15 meters above the ground. Altogether was recorded 72 minutes (n = 22,544 bat calls, 311 records in average per night). The total of 10 bat species was determined. The number of recording varied according to height. Number of Myotis-group calls did significantly differ in individual recording heights but only between 5 and 15 meters, however such differences were absent in the case of non-Myotis group calls, as well as in both types' calls merged together. Calls of Myotis-group were the most abundant whereas they represented 96.5% from all determined calls at 5 m above ground, but only 22.7% at height of 15 meters. The family Rhinolophidae (CF; frequency > 80 kHz) was not recorded. Only a small percentages of fast hawking species Nyctalus noctula and Nyctalus leisleri (≤1%) was recorded. In general, the results are in accordance with similar studies dealing with activity of bats in forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]