Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 January 2023 | 15(1): 22548–22550
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8140.15.1.22548-22550
#8140 | Received 11 August 2022 | Final received
25 October 2022 | Finally accepted 22 December 2022
Installation
of hot boxes for conservation in the last nursery roost of Greater Horseshoe
Bats Rhinolophus ferrumequinum in Austria
Lukas Zangl 1, Alexander Gutstein 2,
Wolfgang Paill 3, Edmund Weiss 4 & Peter Sackl
5
1 Institute of Biology, University
of Graz, Universitätsplatz 2, 8010 Graz, Austria.
2,4 BatLife Österreich, Landstraßer Hauptstrasse 139/15,
1030 Vienna, Austria.
1,3,5 Studienzentrum Naturkunde, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Weinzöttlstraße 16, 8045 Graz, Austria.
1 lukas.zangl@uni-graz.at
(corresponding author), 2 a.gutstein@gmx.at, 3 wolfgang.paill@museum-joaneum.at,
4 edmund.weiss@chello.at, 5 peter.sackl@museum-joanneum.at
Editor: Anonymity requested. Date of publication: 26 January 2023 (online
& print)
Citation: Zangl,
L., A. Gutstein, W. Paill, E. Weiss & P. Sackl (2023). Installation of hot
boxes for conservation in the last nursery roost of Greater Horseshoe Bats Rhinolophus
ferrumequinum in Austria. Journal of Threatened
Taxa 15(1): 22548–22550. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8140.15.1.22548-22550
Copyright: © Zangl et al. 2023. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License. JoTT
allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any
medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of
publication.
Funding: Funding for
the project was provided by the Austrian
federal state of Styria and Agrarmarkt Austria
(761A/2018/42) with support of the
European Union (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development). Additionally, Friederike
Spitzenberger provided private funds for the finned
tube heater. The authors furthermore acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz for covering the Open Access Fees.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: We like to thank Barbara Kaiser and Paul
Schuster (Schloss Eggenberg) for their cooperation
and granting us access to the attic. Furthermore, we kindly appreciate Friederike Spitzenberger for her
support and expertise she provided us with and Rudolf Leitl
for sharing his experiences.
Since the 1950s,
populations of the Greater Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
Schreber, 1774, among several other European bat
species, have plummeted, resulting in their local disappearance or even
large-scale extinction (Ransome & Hutson 2000; Spitzenberger et al. 2010; Dietz & Kiefer 2014; Leitl 2021). Consequently, irrespective of its wide
distribution from the western Palearctic to the east of the Asian continent and
its concomitant IUCN Red List classification as Least Concern (LC), this large
insectivorous bat species is nowadays considered as Endangered or even
Critically Endangered in several central European countries (Piraccini 2016). Especially the loss of feeding grounds,
related to agricultural intensification or change of land use, disturbances,
loss of roosting sites and the loss of insects due to increased use of pesticides
have been identified as factors driving population declines (Ransome & Hutson 2000; Dietz & Kiefer 2014; Matthäus et al. 2022). Nonetheless, recent studies have
shown that some populations, e.g., in Great Britain are in fact stabilizing
and/or recovering due to a combination of conservation efforts and perhaps also
milder climate (van der Meij et al. 2015; Froidevaux et al. 2017). Similar trends were observed in
Germany’s last maternity roost as well where hot boxes have been installed to
provide optimal temperature conditions for Greater Horseshoe Bats (Leitl 2021) as well as for Greater Mouse-eared Bats (Dietz
& Dietz 2021). According to Leitl (2021),
continuous population growth was observed in the years after installation due
to increased survival and higher reproductive success. Since Berthinussen et al. (2014) reported a general lack of
international literature about the effects of hot boxes, only very few
international (Wright et al. 2022; Zingg et al. 2022)
and national (Leitl 2021; Dietz &Dietz 2021)
studies became available in the meantime.
In Austria, the
former distribution of R. ferrumequinum
covered large parts of southern and eastern Austria including findings from
Tyrol (Spitzenberger 2001) and Upper Austria (Pysarczuk 2008) with 16 different nursery roosts reported
until 1999 (Image 1; Spitzenberger 2001). However, R.
ferrumequinum is considered Critically
Endangered by the Red List of endangered mammals of Austria (Spitzenberger 2005) as all previously known maternity
roosts have been abandoned, except the one in Schloss Eggenberg
in Graz which between 2019 and 2021 harbored 48–56 female individuals (Spitzenberger et al. 2010, unpubl.
data).
Consequently,
following the Habitats Directive 92/43/EEC of the European Union, the castle and
its surrounding gardens (Image 1 inlay) were declared as a Natura 2000 Special
Area of Conservation (SAC) in 2015. Subsequently, and for the first time in
Austria, in winter 2018/19, three hot boxes (one equipped with a finned tube
heater (Friedrich Schultze Heizgeräte, Siegen,
Germany) installed in 2021) were installed in the attic directly underneath the
roof ridge of Schloss Eggenberg. The hot boxes
consist of three-layered boards of wood wool with a rock wool core and measure
70 cm in height and 95 cm in diameter at the broadest section (Image 2 top left
and right). The entire construction is non-flammable and equipped with wooden
strips on the inside to provide proper hanging sites for the bats without
damaging the covering wood wool layer. Additionally, underneath each hot box, a
non-flammable box containing a webcam was installed to observe the bats’
behavior and document their use of the different hot boxes. Warm spring
temperatures are suggested to help the bats maintain higher body temperatures which
in turn accelerates birth dates (Ransome & McOwat 1994) and, hence, development of the young (Ransome 1973; Ransome &
Hutson 2000; Dietz & Dietz 2021). Therefore, following Leitl
(2021) and Dietz & Dietz (2021) we hope to improve the maternity roosting
site at Schloss Eggenberg through the hot boxes and
initiate a positive trend of the Austrian breeding population. Initial use of
hot boxes (Image 2 bottom left and right) may indicate tentative acceptance but
the overall acceptance by and effects on the breeding population will have to
be determined through a long-term monitoring.
For images - -
click here for full PDF
References
Berthinussen, A., O.C. Richardson
& J.D. Altringham (2014). Bat Conservation:
Global evidence for the effects of interventions. Pelagic Publishing, Exeter,
87 pp.
Dietz, C. & A. Kiefer (2014). Die Fledermäuse Europas. Kennen, bestimmen, schützen. Kosmos (Kosmos-Naturführer), Stuttgart, 262pp.
Dietz, C. & I. Dietz (2021). Wärmeglocken
für Wochenstuben des Großen Mausohrs (Myotis myotis)
– ein Erfahrungsbericht. - Nyctalus 19(4–5): 428–444.
Froidevaux, J.S., K.L. Boughey, K.E. Barlow & G. Jones (2017). Factors driving
population recovery of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) in the UK: implications for
conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation 26(7): 1601–1621. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-017-1320-1
Leitl, R. (2021). Wärmeglocken
als wichtiger Artenschutzbeitrag für die letzte deutsche Kolonie der Großen
Hufeisennase (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum)
im „Fledermaushaus Hohenburg“. Nyctalus 19(4–5):
420–427.
Matthäus, L., K. Kugelschafter & J. Fietz
(2022). Evaluation of different monitoring methods at maternity roosts of
greater mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis). Biodiversity and
Conservation 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-022-02389-7
Piraccini, R. (2016). Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. In: 2016 The IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species: e.T19517A21973253. Accessed on 31 July 2022. https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T19517A21973253.en
Pysarczuk, S. (2008). Erstnachweis
einer Großen Hufeisennase, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
(SCHREBER 1774) (Chiroptera, Rhinolophidae)
in Oberösterreich. Beiträge zur
Naturkunde Oberösterreichs 18: 305–308.
Ransome, R. (1973). Factors affecting
the timing of births of the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum). Periodicum
Biologorum 75: 169–175.
Ransome, R. & T. McOwat (1994). Birth timing and population changes in greater
horseshoe bat colonies (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum)
are synchronized by climatic temperature. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 112: 337–351.
Ransome, R. & A.M.
Hutson (2000). Action plan for the conservation of the greater
horseshoe bat in Europe (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum).
Council of Europe No. 109: 18–104.
Spitzenberger, F. (2001). Die Säugetierfauna Österreichs. —Grüne Reihe des Bundesministeriums für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft.
Bd. 13., Wien, 1–895pp.
Spitzenberger, F. (2005). Rote Liste der in Österreich gefährdeten Säugetierarten (Mammalia).
In: Zulka K.P. (eds.). Rote Listen gefährdeter Tiere Österreichs. Grüne Reihe des Lebensministeriums Band 14/1: 45–62 pp.
Spitzenberger, F., E. Weiss & P. Sackl (2010). Massive population decline of the Critically
Endangered Greater Horseshoe Bat, Rhinolophus ferrumequinum
(SCHREBER 1774), in Styria, south Eastern Austria, between the mid
1990s and 2009 (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Joannea Zoologie
11: 5–17.
Van der Meij, T., A.J. Van Strien, K.A. Haysom, J. Dekker,
J. Russ, K. Biala, Z. Bihari, E. Jansen, S. Langton, A. Kurali,
H. Limpens, A. Meschede, G. Petersons, P. Presetnik, J. Prüger, G. Reiter,
L. Rodrigues, W. Schorcht, M. Uhrin
& V. Vintulis (2015). Return of the bats?
A prototype indicator of trends in European bat populations in underground
hibernacula. Mammalian Biology 80(3): 170–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mambio.2014.09.004
Wright, P.G.R., T. Kitching, R. Hanniffy,
M. Bollo Palacios, K. McAney
& H. Schofield (2022). Effect of roost management on populations
trends of Rhinolophus hipposideros and Rhinolophus
ferrumequinum in Britain and Ireland. Conservation
Evidence Journal 19: 21–26. https://doi.org/10.52201/CEJ19BUJS9747
Zingg, P.E., U. von Weissenfluh & M. Schaub. (2022). A small, heated
roost facilitates nursery establishment and increases the size of a Lesser
Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros)
colony in the northern Swiss Alps. Conservation Evidence Journal 19:
27–34. https://doi.org/10.52201/CEJ19MQMS5514