Researches on biodiversity conservation and protection of the natural area Oltet Gorges

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1 Researches on biodiversity conservation and protection of the natural area Oltet Gorges Prof. dr. Gamaneci Gheorghe Assoc. prof. dr. Cirtina Daniela, Faculty of Engineering Constantin Brâncusi University of Tg Jiu Str. Eroilor No.1, Tg - Jiu, Gorj Romania daniela@utgjiu.ro; Abstract. The value of the biodiversity of the natural area Oltet Gorges justifies the need for research to inventory the existing species and to establish some management measures to ensure support for the permanent actions and also effective for the conservation and protection of nature. The surface of the natural protected area Oltet Gorges is included in the surface of the site Natura 2000 ROSCI0128 North part of the East Gorj. The natural reserve Oltet Gorges includes an area of 97,6 hectares, of which 95,36 hectares (representing 97,7% of the reserve) includes only natural areas, corresponding to the habitats categories Natura This paper presents the results of the identification and inventory operations of bat species existing in the natural reserve Oltet Gorges, the characterization of hibernation colonies, maternity colonies and feeding areas. Keywords:biodiversity, protection, bat species 1. Introduction The national protected area Oltet Gorges (code 2444) is located in the northeast part of Gorj County, Romania, on the administrative territory of the commune Polovragi, and it has a surface of 150 ha (including the Cave Polovragi). The natural reserve Oltet Gorges was declared as protected area by the Decision 82 from 1994 of the Council of Gorj County. Later, it was declared as protected area of national interest by the Law 5/2000 on the approval of the Development plan of the national territory - Section III - Protected Areas. An interesting aspect of the Natural Reserve Olteţ Gorges is that Olteț River separates two mountains, so the western slope of the Olteţ Gorges belongs to the Mount Parang and the eastern slope to the mountains Căpățânii. The Oltet Gorges and the water activity enabled not only modeling spectacular scenery but also the emergence of numerous caves in the rocky walls of the gorge, of which the largest and most famous is Polovragi cave. The research activity that formed the basis for this study was conducted within the project "Management Measures regarding the biodiversity conservation and public awareness of the natural protected area Oltet Gorges", developed by the University Constantin Brancusi, funded by POS MEDIU, project which had as general objective preserving, protecting and enhancing biodiversity to the protected area Oltet Gorges. In designing the study it was intended as main objectives, the research of the caves and grottoes present in the natural reserve Oltet Gorges to identify and inventory the resident bat populations and the characterization of hibernation colonies, maternity colonies and feeding areas. The period of investigation ranged between December 2010 and January The inventory was performed for all existing bat populations in the natural reserve Oltet Gorges, in order to complete the inventory of resident bats. The bat species which were the studing subject of the mentioned project are species of community interest listed in Directive 92/43/EEC, whose conservation requires the designation of special areas of conservation. ISBN:

2 2. Materials and methods To determine the bat species from the protected area Oltet Gorges there were used the following methods [1-3]: - detection and identification of ultrasounds. To register ultrasound there were used: a detector (Tranquility transect), a discman (Sony MD Walkman MZ-NH 600), a thermometer, a GPS / PDA (ASUS A636) and Batcorder 2 for fixed points. To determine the species of the Cave Polovragi there were used two heterodyne detectors (Pettersson D 240X and D 200 and an MP3 recorder Edirol R-09HR) Fig.1. Fig.1. The equipment used to inventory bats. - underground shelters observations. For obtaining information on bat species present were taken and inventoried all major underground shelters terms chiropterologic and accessible without technical equipment alpine spelunking, the surface area of interest; - catches using mesh for bats. To characterize the migration routes there were made ultrasound recordings at fixed locations, to identify changes over a period of time in the number of registrations per species per location. The standard deviation of the registrations made for each species represents the difference between that variable and the average of all daily values of that variable (the difference between the number of entries in a session for a species and the average number of records for this species throughout the study) and illustrates the seasonal dynamics of the species in that location. This may illustrate if in the studied area in a certain period of time has been an increase, a decrease or it is not recorded any change in the structure of the population. 3. Results and discussions The results obtained with the detector Batcorder 2 Between there were detected, with the detector Batcorder 2, in total contacts (24 species of bats, Table 1). Based on the results (individuals determined to species level, obtained using the program bcanalyse), there was remarked a high presence of the species Miniopterus schreibersii (with contacts), followed by the species Pipistrellus pipistrellus (4406), Myotis myotis (1674), Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (1333), Barbastella barbastellus (1269), Rhinolophus hipposideros (797), Nyctalus noctula (460), Myotis daubentonii (444), Myotis blythii oxygnathus (392), Myotis nattereri (362), Pipistrellus pygmaeus (302), Myotis emarginatus (278), Vespertilio murinus (210), Myotis alcathoe (135), Eptesicus nilssonii (134), Myotis mystacinus (114), Nyctalus leisleri (102), Myotis bechsteinii (100), Eptesicus serotinus (78), Hypsugo savii (54), Plecotus auritus (16), Myotis brandtii (12 Pipistrellus nathusii (11) and Nyctalus lasiopterus (4). Table 1. Species of community interest present in the studied area, detected with the detector Batcorder 2. No. crt. Species name Abbrev. Total no. of. contacts 1. Miniopterus schreibersii (KUHL, 1819) Misch Myotis bechsteinii (KUHL, 1817) Mbec Myotis blythii oxygnathus (MONTICELLI, 1885) Mbly Myotis emarginatus (GEOFFROY, 1806) Mema Myotis myotis (BORKHAUSEN, 1797) Mmyo Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (SCHREBER, 1774) Rfer Rhinolophus hipposideros (BECHSTEIN, 1800) Rhip 797 ISBN:

3 The results obtained with the Detector Tranquility Transect Based on the ultrasounds recorded in March 2011, there were identified 10 species of bats (371 individuals). Figure 2 shows the number of contacts (371) detected by the detector Tranquility Transect. Based on the results obtained it can be seen a high presence of the group of species Eser or Nlei (72), followed by Rfer (67), species of the type Myotis sp. (64), Nnoc or Vmur (37), Vmur (32), Nnoc or Eser or Nlei or Vmur (30), Enil (27), Ppip (17), Eser or Enil (10), Misch (6), Ppip or Misch (2), Ppyg or Misch (2), Nnoc (2), Eser (1), Ppyg (1) and Rhip (1). For the coming months, similarly recorded data were as follows: in April, there were identified 11 species of bats (222 contacts); in May, there were identified 11 species of bats (102 contacts); in June there were identified 10 species of bats (55 contacts); in July there could be identified 9 species of bats (93 contacts); in August, there were identified 10 species of bats (76 contacts); in September there were identified 6 species of bats (74 contacts); in October, there were identified 10 species of bats (38 contacts); in November there could be identified 8 species of bats (66 contacts) and in December there were identified 11 species of bats (132 contacts). Eser or Nlei Rfer Myotis sp. Nnoc or Vmur Vmur Nnoc or Enil Ppip Eser or Enil Misch Ppip or Misch Ppyg or Misch Nnoc Eser Ppyg Rhip Fig. 2. Number of contacts detected with the detector Tranquility Transect in March. Abbrev.: Rhip. - Rhinolophus hipposideros, Ppyg - Pipistrellus pygmaeus, Eser - Eptesicus serotinus, Nnoc- Nyctalus noctula, Misch- Miniopterus schreibersii, Ppip - Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Enil- Eptesicus nilssonii, Vmur- Vespertilio murinus, Myotis sp.- Myotis; Rfer- Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Nlei- Nyctalus leisleri. The results of the inventories from the underground shelters Based on the results of the inventory of the underground shelters there were found 8 species. In the underground shelters there could be identified the species: Barbastella barbastellus, Miniopterus schreibersii, Myotis daubentonii, Myotis emarginatus, Myotis myotis/blythii oxygnathus, Myotis nattereri, Myotis sp., Plecotus austriacus, Rhinolophus hipposideros şi Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. In March there were found 7 species (512 individuals). In the underground shelters there were identified the species Barbastella barbastellus (1), Miniopterus schreibersii (3), Myotis myotis/blythii oxygnathus (96), Myotis nattereri (1), Rhinolophus hipposideros (105) şi Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (306) table 2. Name of the shelters Polovragi Cave Sabareanu Cave Table 2. The species found in the underground shelters in March Species name Inventory date Rfer Rhip Misch Mema Mmyo/bly Mnat Bbar Total Total: ISBN:

4 In the Polovragi Cave in March there were present the species Barbastella barbastellus (1), Miniopterus schreibersii (3), Myotis emarginatus (1), Myotis myotis/blythii oxygnathus (95), Myotis nattereri (1), Rhinolophus hipposideros (104) and Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (306, ) Fig.4. A colony of about 240 individuals of the species Rhinolophus ferrumequinum were on the gallery for visitors in the place marked by Chacula et al. (2008, section 1 in Figure 3). The remaining individuals of the same species were as isolated individuals in most galleries of the cavity. Another colony located in the Guru Hall consisted of 76 individuals of the species Myotis myotis and Myotus blythii oxygnathus (point 3 in Figure 3). Nineteen individuals of the two species mentioned above were to be found as isolated individuals in the gallery for visitors. Most individuals belonged to species Myotis myotis [4,5]. In Sabareanu Cave there was found a single specimen of the Rhinolophus hipposideros. Results obtained through individual capturing bat mesh Through the individual capture method with a bat mesh there were inventoried 622 individuals belonging to 17 species ( ). These species and the corresponding number of individuals are: Miniopterus schreibersii (316 indivizi), Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (101), Pipistrellus pipistrellus (75), Myotis myotis (45), Myotis emarginatus (23), Barbastella barbastellus (12), Rhinolophus hipposideros (11), Myotis daubentonii (6), Myotis mystacinus (3), Plecotus austriacus (9), Myotis bechsteinii (7), Myotis nattereri (4), Myotis blythii oxygnathus (2), Hypsugo savii (2), Pipistrellus pygmaeus (2), Myotis alcathoe (1) şi Eptesicus serotinus (1). In July, for example, there were identified 16 individuals of 6 species: Miniopterus schreibersii (6 indivizi), Myotis myotis (3), Myotis emarginatus (3), Myotis mystacinus (1), Myotis alcathoe (1), Barbastella barbastellus (1) şi Pipistrellus pipistrellus (1) (Figure 5). Fig. 3. Polovragi cave map. Legend: 1. Tourist Gallery 2.Gallery downstream access 3.Guru Hall 4. Wonders Hall 5.Gallery 27; 6.Hall 7.Gallery upstream access. Bbar Mnat Mema Misch Mmyo/bly Rhip Rfer Fig. 4. Number of species or individuals inventoried in the underground shelters in March. ISBN:

5 Fig. 5. Number of individuals and species captured with the bat mesh in July. Feeding habitats The feeding areas preferred by the species of community interest identified are as follows [6,7]: - Miniopterus schreibersii. The species presents a morphological adaptation for hunting in areas with many obstacles: the plagiopatagium is longer than at the other bats, and the wingtips can be folded, giving greater maneuverability in flight. It can hunt in anthropogenic areas, wetlands, selvedges or inside the dense forest. - Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. It hunts near the arboreal vegetation, meadows and orchards, only large insects. - Myotis myotis. It prefers open areas with herbaceous vegetation, and selvedges. - Myotis bechsteinii. It hunts in areas with herbaceous vegetation at the ground level or above, and in forests without vegetation. It can hunt insects directly from the ground. - Myotis emarginatus. It prefers densely vegetated woodland, selvedges and meadows with fruit trees. - Rhinolophus hipposideros. It hunts in dense vegetation from the canopy to the ground or in open areas with tall herbage. - Myotis blythii oxygnathus. It prefers open areas, meadows with fruit trees and selvedges of woods. It hunts close to the ground, 1-2 m high. Table 3. The surfaces of the feeding areas of the protected area and its neighborhoods. Vicinity of the protected area Protected area Type feeding area Surface (ha) Type feeding area Surface (ha) Natural open areas 137,0 Natural open areas 9,9 Antrophogenic open areas 61,1 - Anthropogenic areas 8,3 - Meadow Rivers 8,6 Meadow Rivers 1,9 Forested areas 1147,9 Forested areas 85,8 Total area 1362,8 97,6 Maternity colonies On , in the Cave Outlaws there was identified a maternity colony hetero-specific composed of 3000 individuals belonging to the species Miniopterus schreibersii, 800 belonging to the species Myotis blythii oxygnathus and 25 to the species Rhinolophus ferrumequinum. This is the largest maternity colony identified in the analyzed area. There were also carried out investigations on trees with hollows that can be the shelter of the forest species (Myotis bechsteinii) using an endoscope, but there were ISBN:

6 not identified maternity colonies or isolated individuals. Migration. Most species in the studied area are relatively sedentary and make small movements between the wintering shelter and the summer one (Table 4). The only migratory species is Miniopterus schreibersii, which can travel from 100 to 350 km between shelters, but without a predestined direction. Two of the species that undertake seasonal journeys (Miniopterus schreibersii and Myotis bechsteinii) start the migration period at the beginning of October and return in the protected area in late March. The exceptions are the species Myotis blythii oxygnathus, which start the migration about one month earlier than the other species (September), Myotis emarginatus which returns a month later (end of April) and Myotis myotis, which leaves in November and returns in late April. Table 4. Classification of the species in the studied area by the migration character and the average distance in migration The average The category distance of average No. Species The character of the migration traveled in distance crt. migration traveled in (km) migration 1. Rhinolophus Sedentary/ Rarely migratory on short hipposideros distances 20 Very short 2. Rhinolophus Sedentary/ Rarely migratory on short ferrumequinum distances 50 Very short 3. Miniopterus schreibersi Migrant 200 Short 4. Myotis blythii Sedentary/Rarely migratory on short oxygnathus distances 15 Very short 5. Myotis Sedentary/ Rarely migratory on short emarginatus distances 40 Very short 6. Myotis Sedentary/ Rarely migratory on short bechsteinii distances 20 Very short 7. Myotis myotis Regional migratory 75 Very short Hibernation The hibernation areas preferred by the species of community interest identified are as follows [7,8]: - the Rhinolophus hipposideros species generally prefer karst areas (troglophile species), finding shelter for wintering mainly at the entrance of the underground cavities area with a stable climate between 6 and 9 0 C. The shelters in which it was observed in hibernation are Polovragi Cave, the Cave with three entrances and the Cave Sabareanu. - the Rhinolophus ferrumequinum species belongs to the same family having similar preferences to the one described above, except that it is thermophilic (by reference to the average temperatures of the underground cavities that are equal most of the time with the average annual temperatures outside them) and it prefers warmer cavities with temperatures between 7 and 11 0 C. The shelters in which it was observed in hibernation are Polovragi Cave and Cave Outlaws. - the Miniopterus schreibersii species is completely troglophile, wintering only in underground cavities with temperatures between 4 and 12 0 C and relative humidity of the air between 70 and 90%. It makes large displacements between hibernation shelters and the summer shelters, so most individuals leave the area during the swarming phase of the other species. In the studied area the species was identified wintering in Polovragi Cave, Big Grotto Cave and the Outlaws Cave. - the Myotis myotis species prefers the warm underground cavities as winter shelter, but it can also be found in human shelters, such as attics and church steeples. It generally hibernates in caves with temperatures above 7 0 C and high relative humidity (over 80%). This was identified during hibernation in the studied area in the Cave Polovragi and Haiducilor. - the Myotis emarginatus species is a species ISBN:

7 that prefers thermophilic underground cavities as winter shelter. The individuals usually hibernate isolated, allowing them to populate a variety of hot cracks in karst areas. The species was found in the Cave Polovragi, in March, where a single individual was hibernating isolated. 4. Conclusions The inventory activities included the research of the caves and grottoes in the reserve area, and records of ultrasounds emitted by these mammals in order to characterize hibernation colonies, maternity colonies and feeding areas. The main hibernation and maternity colonies were identified in the Cave Polovragi Outlaws. Other important locations as shelter mainly for the species of the kind Rhynolophus are the Bear Cave, the Cave "with three entrances" the Cave "from the arch" and the Cave Sabareanu. In the Natural Reserve Oltet Gorges there were identified five species which chose the underground cavities as shelter for hibernation. These are: Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Rhinolophus hipposideros, Miniopterus schreibersii, Myotis myotis and Myotis emarginatus. They prefer the karst environment as winter shelter, especially Polovragi Cave with the highest number of bats at hibernation, followed by Cave Outlaws. The largest maternity colony in Oltet Gorges is in the cave Outlaws, where there were identified approximately individuals belonging to the species Miniopterus schreibersii, Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii oxygnathus. The Miniopterus schreibersii species is the most abundant here, representing about 78% of the total number of individuals of mixed colony. The mentioned cave is frequently accessed / visited by people and is in a good state of preservation. The data collected during this study on the number of contacts made monthly for each species revealed, after achieving the annual activity graphics that only two of the species of interest are sedentary for the area of the project (Rhynolophus ferrumequinum and Rhynolophus hipposideros), the other species with migratory character, on longer or smaller distances and missing or significantly reducing their flocks during the cold season, when they undertake seasonal movements (migration). The protection of bats in the Oltet Gorges Reserve involves the adoption of a set of measures which include both monitoring the livestock and their health, limiting the tourist influx in areas where there are major hibernation and maternity colonies, to inform and sensitize the local people of the importance of preserving bat species, as well as simple means to reach behind them for the protection of individuals which live or feed near their homes. References [1]. Battersby, J. (comp.) - Guidelines for Surveillance and Monitoring of European Bats. Eurobats Publikation Series No.5, UNEP/EUROBATS Secretariat, Bonn, Germany, [2]. Botnariuc, N., Tatole V. - Red Book of Vertebrates from Romania, Romanian Academy and the National Museum of Natural History Grigore Antipa, Bucharest, [3]. Borda, D., Borda, C. - Bats. Relationship with man and the environment, Napoca Star Publish, Cluj Napoca, [4]. Chachula, O., Mester, L., Dumitru, R. - Distribution and Diversity of Bat`species from Polovragi Cave (Capatanii Mountains, Romania) and some remarks on the Microclimatic Conditions of Hibernation, Oltenia Craiova Museum, Education and Communications, Natural Sciences, Tom XXV, [5]. Decu, V., Murariu, D., Gheorghiu V. - Bat in Romania, Art Group Int., Bucharest, [6]. Jére, Cs., Szodoray-Parádi, F. - Identification Manual species of bats (Chiroptera) in Romania, Bat Protection Association of Romania, IDEA Studio Satu Mare, [7]. Jére, Cs., Szodoray-Parádi, F. - Bats and Environmental Impact Assessment- Methodological Guide, Bat Protection Association of Romania, IDEA Studio Satu Mare, [8]. Nagy, Z., Postawa, T. - Seasonal and geographical distribution of cave-dwelling bats in Romania: implications for conservation. Animal Conservation. The Zoological Society of London, [9]. Mitchell-Jones, A.J., Bihari, Z., Masing M., Rodrigues, L. - Protecting and managing underground sites for bats. Eurobats Publikation Series No. 52, UNEP/EUROBATS Secretariat, Bonn, Germany, ISBN: