Zimowe spisy nietoperzy na Wyżynie Krakowskiej w latach 2018-2022 na tle historii badań

The Kraków Upland is situated north-west of the city of Kraków and is part of the Kraków-Wieluń Upland – the largest karstic region in Poland. There are more than 1,600 caves known in the Kraków Upland, with a total length of more than 20 km. Bats have been studied in this area for more than 160 years. During 264 controls 8,680 bats were found, of which 8,652 were identified (Table 1). Sixty-four caves were controlled at least once, and bats were found in 56 of them (Table 4, Fig. 1). The presence of at least 13 bat species was confirmed: Rhinolophus hipposideros, R. ferrumequinum, Myotis myotis, M. bechsteinii, M. nattereri, M. emarginatus, M. mystacinus/brandtii/alcathoe, M. dasycneme, M. daubentonii, Eptesicus nilssonii, E. serotinus, Plecotus auritus and Barbastella barbastellus. The most numerous species were R. hipposideros (71.6%), M. myotis (13.5%), M. emarginatus (6.8%), B. barbastellus (4.2%) and M. daubentonii (1.6%) (Figs 2, 5; Table 3). In the past 35 years a distinct increase in the number of bats has been observed. The most significant increases concern R. hipposideros, M. emarginatus and B. barbastellus (Figs 3, 4; Table 3). After an increase in 2013–2017, the population of M. myotis remained stable during the next five years of research. The rare bat species R. ferrumequinum, M. bechsteinii, M. nattereri, and E. nilssonii were noted. The most important sites are: Ciemna Cave, Nietoperzowa Cave, Racławicka Cave, Twarda Cave, Wierzchowska Górna Cave and Łokietka Cave (Table 2)