NAT. CROAT. VOL. 10 No 3 221¿227 ZAGREB September 30, 2001 ISSN 1330-0520 . UDK 599.4:591.94 591.542(497.5) original scientific paper / izvorni znanstveni rad THE POND BAT MYOTIS DASYCNEME IN CROATIA NIKOLA TVRTKOVI], DRA[KO HOLCER & BRANKO JAL@I] Department of Zoology, Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia Tvrtkovi}, N., Holcer, D. & Jal`i}, B.: The Pond bat Myotis dasycneme in Croatia. Nat. Croat., Vol. 10, No. 3., 221–227, 2001, Zagreb. The pond bat Myotis dasycneme was recorded for the first time in Croatia. It was found wintering together with eight other bat species in Papuk Natural Park situated between the rivers Sava and Drava in the northeastern part of Croatia. Former mentions of the occurrence of M. dasycneme in Croatia were based on doubtful observations by Mojsisovics von Mojsvár in the 19th century. Key words: bats, Croatia, Myotis dasycneme, first finding, wintering site Tvrtkovi}, N., Holcer, D. & Jal`i}, B.: Mo~varni {i{mi{ Myotis dasycneme u Hrvatskoj. Nat. Croat., Vol. 10, No. 3., 221–227, 2001, Zagreb. Krivo citirani podaci o nalazi{tima mo~varnog {i{mi{a Myotis dasycneme iz starih radova austrijskog zoologa A. Mojsisovicsa von Mojsvára u XIX. stolje}u ispravljeni su prvim nalazom ove vrste u Hrvatskoj. Mo~varni {i{mi{ je na|en na zimovali{tu s jo{ osam vrsta {i{mi{a u Parku prirode Papuk, izme|u rijeka Drave i Save u sjeveroisto~noj Hrvatskoj. Klju~ne rije~i: {i{mi{i, Hrvatska, Myotis dasycneme, prvi nalaz, zimovali{te INTRODUCTION August Mojsisovics von Mojsvár, professor of zoology in Graz/Austria noted in his paper »Streiftouren im Ried-Terrain von Béllye und in der Umgebung von Villány (Comitat Baranya in Ungarn)« (MOJSISOVICS 1882): »Ich selbst habe mit Bestimmheit nur Vespertilio dasycneme Boie, Abends vor dem Enteneinfalle und zwar da in betraechtlicher Anzahl beobachtet«. At the time of this publication Béllye was a large private property that spread north of the Drava river between Mohács (today in Hungary) and Eszek (Osijek, today in Croatia). In a later communication »Zur fauna von Béllye and Dárda II.« (MOJSISOVICS 1884) he included M. Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, Zagreb, Croatia 222 Tvrtkovi}, N. et al.: The pond bat Myotis dasycneme in Croatia Fig. 1. Entrance of the 20 m deep ponor (swallow-hole) Uviraljka, wintering site of Myotis dasycneme on Mt. Papuk, Croatia. Photo: N. Tvrtkovi}. dasycneme in the list of mammals of this region without giving new informations on the occurrence of this bat. In the book »Das Thierlebender der österr.-ungar. Tiefebenen« (MOJSISOVICS 1897) that summarises his entire previous research, he lists M. dasycneme only in Banat and »den mittleren Donau-gegenden« (p. 152), meaning area of Hungary and probably today's Vojvodina (Yugoslavia). In fact Mojsisovics nowhere strictly said that the species has been found in the area of today's Croatia. Nat. Croat. Vol. 10(3), 2001 223 Fig. 2. Pond bat Myotis dasycneme from Uviraljka ponor, Croatia. Photo: D. Holcer. For two reasons Mojsisovics' data must be taken with caution. As the author did not mention the exact locality of his observations it remains unclear whether he saw these bats in today's Hungary or today's Croatia. Since there are no voucher specimens that confirm the species identity (MEHELY 1900) he could have seen an other species as well. We doubt that he could have recognised Myotis dasycneme in flight without catching it. Nevertheless, in later publications (PASZLAVSZKY 1918, TOPAL 1954, DJULI] 1959, DULI] & TORTI] 1960, DULI] & MIRI] 1967, HORÁ^EK & HANÁK 1989) the place-names mentioned in the title of MOJSISOVICS (1884) Béllye and Dárda, now Bilje and Darda in Croatia, were wrongly used as localities in which Myotis dasycneme was recorded in Croatia. Only \ULI] (1994) removed the pond bat from the list of bat species recorded for Croatia. MATERIAL AND METHODS The unclear status of this species in the Pannonian lowland of Croatia, and data from its southern border of distribution in Hungary (MITCHELL-JONES et al., 1999), gave us reason to try to find M. dasycneme in Slavonija (NE Croatia) during the period from November, 1998 to January, 2000. Only our sixth visit to potential summer and winter roosts of this species was successful. Besides visual observations, some specimens were examined and measured. Two voucher specimens of Myotis dasycneme were taken for the mammal collection of the Croatian Natural History Museum (CNHM), Zagreb (No 6109, 6110). 224 Tvrtkovi}, N. et al.: The pond bat Myotis dasycneme in Croatia RESULTS On January 18, 2000 in the swallow hole (ponor) Uviraljka (780 m a.s.l., UTM YL04, Fig. 1) on Mt. Papuk, 35 km south of river Drava and 45 km north of river Sava, we found 6 males of M. dasycneme (Fig. 2). The bats were in a ponor (about 20 m deep swallow hole) together with other species (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, R. hipposideros, Plecotus auritus, Myotis brandtii, M. daubentoni, M. myotis and M. nattereri). In the previous year, by mist netting at the entrance of the same ponor we caught also M. bechsteini and M. emarginatus. Air temperature near the hibernating bats was +5.9 °C, and water temperature of the creek that runs through the ponor was +2.5 °C. In total, we counted 235 bats in the ponor, but their number was surely greater since parts of the ponor are not accessible. Specimens of M. dasycneme were mostly solitary hanging near the bats of other species. One specimen was in the cluster with M. daubentoni which were hibernating in groups of about 30 to 50 animals. Four males were examined and measured (forearm 45, 45, 46 and 47 mm), two of them were subadult. DISCUSSION This finding confirms the pesence of M. dasycneme in Croatia. According to the species distribution in MITCHELL-JONES et al., (1999) the locality Uviraljka is one of the southernmost known hibernation sites of this species in Europe (Fig. 3). It remains unknown where the summer habitat of the specimens of Papuk is. These are most probably specimens from subpopulation north from Papuk, where species has been found before, along the river Drava in neighbouring Hungary (MITCHELL-JONES et al., 1999). In Donji Miholjac (UTM BR77) near the Drava river, an amateur ornithologist, Mr. Zdravko Tadi}, caught in a mist net on May 11, 2000 a bat whose dimensions (forearm 44.7, ear 16.9, tail 47.9 mm), weight (17.6 g) and description (long feet!) suited the pond bat. Unfortunately, this finding has not been properly documented. Another possibility is that M. dasycneme inhabits suitable feeding habitats south of Papuk Mt. along the river Sava and its tributaries. M. dasycneme is a species that in northern and central Europe inhabits almost exclusively areas of lowland river basins and canals with stagnant waters and riparian vegetation. With its islet-like distribution and low abundance of local populations it may be threatened, e.g. by water drainage and stream regulations (HORÁ^EK, 1999). Due to the specialisation in prey hunting and its specific way of catching insects, mostly above larger water bodies that are recently more and more polluted and lacking their usual insect fauna, this species appears on the IUCN list of the most threatened animals (IUCN, 2000) as vulnerable species (VU). In Europe, an action plan for the protection of this species has been already prepared (LIMPENS et al., 2000) and proposed from EC as part of the Bern Convention. Therefore, Uviraljka ponor (actually in protected »Papuk Natural Park«) should be legally protected as a zoological reserve, nationally important multi-species bat site (six threatened species – four VU and two LR.nt), as soon as possible. At the same time, an assessment of the status Nat. Croat. Vol. 10(3), 2001 225 Fig. 3. Southern border of distribution of the pond bat Myotis dasycneme in central Europe after DOBROSI (1995), MITCHELL-JONES et al. (1999) and ROER (2001) with new finding site marked with a black point. and enabling of protection of this probably Europe’s southernmost subpopulation as well as inspection of potential summer habitats of M. dasycneme in Croatia, should be conducted. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to Mr. I. Novotny from Orahovica and speleologist D. Lackovi} (CHNM) for their help in the field, to dr. K. Bauer (NHMW) for help in finding old papers of A. Mojsisovics, and to dr. F. Spitzenberger for her help for suggestions and critically reading drafts of paper. The research was carried out under the project »Croatian terrestrial vertebrate fauna«, No 183006, of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Republic of Croatia. 226 Tvrtkovi}, N. et al.: The pond bat Myotis dasycneme in Croatia REFERENCES DJULI], B, 1959: Beitrag zur Kenntnis der geographischen Verbreitung der Chiropteren Kroatiens. Glasnik prirodnja~kog muzeja, ser. B. 14, 67 – 112. DOBROSI, D. (ed.), 1995: A Handbook for the Conservation of Bats in Hungary. Hungarian Bat Research Society, Mesterszállás. \ULI], B., 1994: Bats. In: DRAGANOVI], E. (ed.): Red Data Book of Animal Species of Croatia – Mammals. Ministarstvo graditeljstva i za{tite okoli{a, Zavod za za{titu prirode, Zagreb (In Croatian). \ULI], B. & TORTI], A., 1960: Verzeichnis der Säugetiere Jugoslawiens. Säugetierk. Mitt., 8, 1–12. \ULI], B. & MIRI], \., 1967: Catalogus faunae Jugoslaviae – 4. Mammalia. – Acta Sci. Art. Sloven., Ljubljana, 1–46. HORÁ^EK, I., 1999: Myotis dasycneme (Boie, 1825). In: MITCHELL – JONES, A. J., AMORI, G., BOGDANOWICZ, W., KRY[TUFEK, B., REIJNDERS, P. J. H., SPITZENBERGER, F., STTUBE, M., THISSEN, J. B. M., VOHRALÍK, V. & ZIMA, J.: The Atlas of European Mammals. T & AD Poyser Natural History, London, p. 108. HORÁ^EK, I. & HANÁK, V., 1989: Distributional status of Myotis dasycneme. In: HANÁK, V., HORÁ^EK, I. & GAISLER, J. (eds.): European bat reasearch 1987. 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(Säugethiere, Reptilien, Amphibien und Fische). Verlag des Naturwissenschaftlichen Vereines für Steiermark (Jahrgang 1883), Graz. MOJSISOVICS VON MOJSVÁR, A., 1897: Das Thierleben der österreichisch – ungarischen Tiefebenen. Alfred Hölder, Wien. PASZLAVSZKY, J. (ed.), 1918: Fauna Regni Hungariæ. Mammalia. Regia Societas Scientarium Naturalium Hungarica, Budapest. ROER, H., 2001: Myotis dasycneme (Boie, 1825) – Teichfledermaus. In: KRAPP, F. (ed.): Handbuch der Säugetiere Europas, Band 4; Fledertiere, Teil I; Chiroptera I. AULA-Verlag GmbH Wiebelsheim, 303–319. SCHOBER, W. & GRIMMBERGER, E., 1998: Die Fledermäuse Europas. (Revised edition). Kosmos – Naturführer, Stuttgart. (Rpa) TOPAL, G., 1954: A Karpátmedence denevéreinek elterjedési adatai. Ann. hist. – natt. Mus. Nat. Hung., Budapest, 45, 471–483. 227 Nat. Croat. Vol. 10(3), 2001 S A @ E TA K Mo~varni {i{mi{ Myotis dasycneme u Hrvatskoj N. Tvrtkovi}, D. Holcer & B. Jal`i} Iako je mo~varni {i{mi{ (Myotis dasycneme) bio navo|en kao ~lan faune sisavaca Hrvatske (DJULI], 1959; \ULI] & TORTI], 1960; \ULI] & MIRI], 1967; HORÁ^EK & HÁNAK, 1989), izostavljen je iz prve Crvene liste ugro`enih sisavaca (\ULI] u DRAGANOVI] (ur.), 1994) jer detaljnijim pregledom radova A. Mojsisovicsa koji su citirani kao jedini izvorni podaci (PASZLAVSZKY, 1918) nije potvr|eno da je ova vrsta zabilje`ena za Hrvatsku. Novija karta rasprostranjenja mo~varnog {i{mi{a u Europi (MITCHELL-JONES i ost., 1999) dala nam je poticaj da ipak potra`imo ovu vrstu u Hrvatskoj. Kao rezultat trogodi{njeg istra`ivanja, M. dasycneme je kona~no prona|en u zimovali{tu u ponoru Uviraljka ispod vrha planine Papuk (danas podru~je Parka prirode Papuk). Uz njega je u istom ponoru prona|eno ~ak osam vrsta {i{mi{a (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, R. hipposideros, Plecotus auritus, Myotis brandtii, M. daubentoni, M. myotis, M. nattereri, M. emarginatus) od ~ega je ukupno ~ak {est vrsta na IUCN listi ugro`enih, pa ovaj lokalitet treba {to prije posebno za{tititi kao jedno od nacionalno va`nih stani{ta {i{mi{a. To je i obveza prema Bernskoj konvenciji, te u okviru direktive o za{titi prirodnih stani{ta i divlje faune i flore ~lanica Europske zajednice kojima se Hrvatska `eli pridru`iti.