¿És d'interès públic mantenir una xarxa de seguiment de ratpenats als espais naturals protegits de l'Alt Empordà?

Entre els anys 2001 a 2009 s’han realitzat diverses campanyes d’estudi de ratpenats a l’Alt Empordà, sobretot en espais naturals protegits. A banda d’unes 300 nits de camp, s’han realitzat nou conferències, s’ha editat material didàctic i generat desenes de notícies. Durant aquest període, s’han citat 25 espècies de ratpenats (86% de les catalanes). A l’Albera i l’AltaGarrotxa és on s’han trobat més espècies, segurament a causa de l’elevada diversitat d’hàbitats i presència de boscos ben conservats. Entre els diferents espais naturals, s’hi ha pogut confirmar connectivitat, sobretot gràcies als corredors fluvials amb vegetació de ribera existents. En general, aquest estudi mostra l’interès dels ratpenats com a bioindicadors de la qualitat del nostre entorn i convida investigadors i gestors a continuar fent campanyes de divulgació i sensibilitzacióBetween 2001 and 2009, several field studies on bats have been carried out in the Alt Empordà region, especially in protected areas. Besides 300 nights in the field, nine conferences were held, educational material has been edited and dozens of news articles have been published. During this period, 25 species of bats (86% of Catalan species) have been cited.Most species were found in the Albera mountain range and the Alta Garrotxa region, surely because of their elevated diversity of habitats and the presence of wellconserved forests. A connection between the different natural parks has been confirmed thanks to the river corridors and their vegetation. In general, this study is interested in bats as bioindicators of environmental quality and invites researchers and managers to continue outreach and awareness campaigns

Bat echolocation plasticity in allopatry: a call for caution in acoustic identification of Pipistrellus sp.

Animals modify their behaviours and interactions in response to changing environments. In bats, environmental adaptations are reflected in echolocation signalling that is used for navigation, foraging and communication. However, the extent and drivers of echolocation plasticity are not fully understood, hindering our identification of bat species with ultrasonic detectors, particularly for cryptic species with similar echolocation calls. We used a combination of DNA barcoding, intensive trapping, roost and emergence surveys and acoustic recording to study a widespread European cryptic species complex (Pipistrellus pipistrellus and Pipistrellus pygmaeus) to investigate whether sibling bat species could exhibit extreme echolocation plasticity in response to certain environmental conditions or behaviours. We found that P. pygmaeus occupied the acoustic niche of their absent congeneric species, producing calls with P. pipistrellus’ characteristic structure and peak frequencies and resulting in false positive acoustic records of that species. Echolocation frequency was significantly affected by the density of bats and by maternity rearing stage, with lower frequency calls emitted when there was a high density of flying bats, and by mothers while juveniles were non-volant. During roost emergence, 29% of calls had peak frequencies typical of P. pipistrellus, with calls as low as 44 kHz, lower than ever documented. We show that automatic and manual call classifiers fail to account for echolocation plasticity, misidentifying P. pygmaeus as P. pipistrellus. Our study raises a vital limitation of using only acoustic sampling in areas with high densities of a single species of a cryptic species pair, with important implications for bat monitoring

Identificació bioacústica d'algunes espècies de ratpenats amb sonogrames, espectogrames i espectres sonors segons la seva freqüència d'ecolocalització

Aquest article forma part del treball de recerca de secundària de batxillerat sobre ratpenats on es tracta la detecció i identificació dels quiròpters mitjançant un detector. Posteriorment, es realitza una comparació entre sonogrames, espectrogrames i espectres sonors d'algunes espècies de quiròpters segons la seva freqüència d' ecolocalització.This article is part of an end-of-upper-secondary-education research project about bats, focused on detecting and identification of bats through a detector. Later, a comparison is made between sonograms, spectrograms and sound spectra of some species of bats ac-cording to their frequency of echolocation

Reappraising the use of forearm rings for bat species

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UABLong-term mark-recapture studies are essential for bat conservation. Over the last decades, millions of bats across Europe and America have been marked with forearm rings for this purpose. Although it is considered a cost-effective method compared to Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT) tags, direct injuries from using forearm rings have been reported since their very first use. Yet, their impact on bats' welfare has not been systematically evaluated and remains a highly controversial issue among the scientific community and policymakers. Here we assess the impact of forearm rings and PIT tags on the health of different bat species. We reviewed 12 years of the existing recapture data of free-ranging bats from NE Spain and evaluated the impact of both marking tools in a captive colony of Carollia perspicillata, by assessing the development of skin lesions and levels of cortisol metabolites in guano (CG) after marking. We report that 55.1 % (435/790) of the recaptured free-ranging bats with forearm rings presented skin lesions. All banded C. perspicillata (n = 22, 100 %) developed skin lesions, whereas none of the PIT-tagged (n = 21) presented lesions. Levels of CG were significantly higher after marking with forearm rings only for one group. Banded C. perspicillata exhibited discomfort-associated behaviours due to forearm rings. Under the "precautionary principle", we recommend the ban of forearm rings for all bat species until species-specific studies under controlled conditions are performed and approved by a legally constituted ethics committee. Consideration of other long-term marking tools is mandatory to align with global bat conservation strategies

Entrevistes per Sílvia Culell. "Amb la vinya plantada el paisatge tornarà a com havia estat fa segles, segurament al segle XII"

Els bancals de Sant Julià de Cerdanyola, tots delimitats per murs de pedra seca, són segurament una de les imatges que als amants del vi i el paisatge ens agradaria reviure. Segurament aquest va ser també un els motius que va portar al matrimnoni format per l'Imma Espel, biòloga i experta en turisme, i Carles Flaquet, també biòleg i coordinador de l'àrea de quiròpters del Museu de Ciències Naturals de Granollers, a emprendre un projecte que no té res de senzilli ho té tot de passió, cor i voluntat per recuperar i preservar part d'un patrimoni paisatgístic que durant anys va estar lligar a la vinya