Diversity and conservation of bats in Karaftu cave, Kurdistan province of Iran

Caves represent a critical habitat for most bats in Iran, but studies on cave-dwelling bats are very scarce. Caves make suitable roosts throughout the year and their availability is a limiting factor for distribution and abundance of cavedwelling bats. The Karaftu cave is located about 70 km from Saqez among the most spectacular and scenic regions of Kurdistan province in Western Iran. Due to survey the diversity of bats, we have collected them by hand, hand net and mist net. For identification of bats, six standard external measurements including head and body length, total length, tail length, ear length, forearm length and hind foot length were taken with a digital caliper from fresh specimens. In four visits from 2014 to 2017 to this cave, we recorded the presence of six bat species: Rhinolophidae (Rinolophus hipposideros, R. mehelyi, and R. ferrumequinum), Vespertilionidae (Myotis blythii and M.capaccinii) and Miniopteridae (Miniopterus pallidus). We compared visual counts obtained from four visits and found that all species show a general decline in number and bat abundances. Therefore, developing a conservation action plan for this cave has a high priority

کلیدواژه ها:

Bat ، Cave dwelling ، Karaftu ، Conservation ، Kurdistan province