Activists tried to find Schreiber’s bat – also know as the bent-wing bat, Miniopterus schreibersii – in the vicinity of Banská Štiavnica in mid-July. One of the world’s fastest flying bats once lived in the local Juraj’s Mine-gallery.
Environmentalist Denisa Löbbová of the Association for Protection of Bats in Slovakia (Spoločnosť pre ochranu netopierov na Slovensku) told the TASR newswire that the gallery was overgrown with vegetation and bats disappeared from it. Over one mid-July weekend, activists searched in the mining openings in the central-Slovak former mining town of Banská Štiavnica and in Hodruša-Hámre. They believe the rare bat species still lives in this region as a winter census result found one from the species.
“The trouble is that it is a very quick animal and is hard to be found even by detectors,” Löbbová said. “We have not been successful so far, but we will continue searching with the help of nets.”
In 1970s, the Schreiber’s bat lived the drainage gallery Juraj which led into several mining complexes – this was very comfortable for the bats. However, the mines closed were absorbed by the surrounding nature and even the entry was overgrown by vegetation.
“We try to at least clean the entry from the plants so that bats have an easier access,” the environmentalist told TASR. “We have also found that the gallery is flooded, and thus we try to decrease the water level by 10 to 20 centimetres at least. This is our days work, and in the nights, we capture the bats in special nets and scrutinise the occurrence of other species.”
5. Aug 2013 at 0:00 | Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská
