Important underground roosts for bats in Bulgaria: current state and priorities for conservation.

ABSTRACT: Bulgaria has a very rich bat fauna and large colonies of bats can be found in caves, mines and other underground roosts. Respectively, there are more than 107 underground roosts that are listed as important bat sites, most of which are protected by statutory laws and are of national or international importance. Despite the existence of formal protection, many roosts face anthropogenic disturbances due to the popularity of outdoor activities, such as caving and the lack of actual regulation. Currently, the evaluation was only based on the size of the colony and the presence of protected species. However, this approach is limited to roosts that contain high diversity and neglects the ones that contain high biotic importance that are highly threatened by various threats. Here, we evaluated co

SUBMITTER: Deleva S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10848659 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature