Bats in Soutos: an example of biodiversity associated with cultural forests

MITECO

The O Courel and Ancares mountain ranges are home to one of the most abundant and diverse communities of bats in the northwest of the peninsula, made up of at least 20 species.

The rich community of forest bats is particularly noteworthy, which has been attributed to the persistence of mature forests that provide high stability to the landscape, such as the cultural forests of chestnut (Castanea sativa) or the so-called soutos, in the local denomination. However, no studies have been carried out that quantify the importance and degree of dependence of the bat community on these forest formations.

The present study aims to characterize the use that the different species of bats make of the bat to determine its importance in the maintenance of bat diversity. Likewise, the morphological and ecological characteristics that favour the diversity of bats in the soutos will be determined through the study of differentiated formations and landscape units in which these formations are important.

The objective, in short, is the conservation of bat (O. Chiroptera) populations associated with chestnut (Castanea sativa) cultural forests

The specific purposes are:

To determine the abundance and diversity of bats, with special attention to strictly forest species, in mountain landscape units with different representation of souto formations.
To determine the use of the souto as a refuge and/or feeding habitat for different species of bats.
To establish the characteristics of the soutos that favor the existence of more diverse communities of bats.