вторник, 07 ноября 2017 year

Feldman Ecopark’s Centre of Cheiroptera Rehabilitation introduced high technologies for studies

The specialists of the Centre of Cheiroptera Rehabilitation of Feldman Ecopark have used the range of technologies, which are new in Ukraine, during their field studies.

The head of the Centre Anton Vlashchenko told that during the expedition aimed at the study of the greater noctule bats in the forest near the village of Karavan (Derhachi region, Kharkiv oblast), for the first time in Ukraine, they used radio telemetry to watch the bats. As the result of the observations, they caught and studied 795 bats of nine species, including six greater noctule bats. The expedition was carried out within the framework of the project “Conservation and monitoring of Nyctalus lasiopterus in the Eastern Part of the species distribution range” supported by Rufford Foundation (UK).

Another new technology – the use of trail cameras to take photos and videos of bats in caves – was used by the specialists of the Centre during the expedition to Lyptsi caves (Kharkiv region). 15% out of 349 studied bats of 5 species have already been ringed earlier.

Moreover, during the studies of the Centre, the specialists used new up-to-date equipment – ultrasonic detector Pettersson D500x (acoustic monitoring in the building of Karazin Kharkiv National University) and the bat attraction tool Ultrasound loudspeaker BatLure (study of bats migration along the Dnipro river to the island of Khortytsia in Zaporizhzhia oblast and on the bank of Kyiv reservoir in Kyiv oblast.)

They told in the Centre that in connection with the bat migration season, people brought a lot of found bats – 420 bats during two months – to the specialists. The most part of them were found in Kharkiv, and several bats were from Chuhuiev, Dnipro, Poltava, Bakhmut, Ternopil, Odesa and Dubăsari (Moldova). The bats in normal condition were returned to the nature immediately, while the weak animals (with underweight) were fed during several days, and the injured ones were operated and treated by the Centre’s veterinarian Anastasiia Domanska.