Determination of the bat (chiroptera) activity in the Anatolian Sweetgum Forests inside Köyceğiz-Dalyan specially protected area

Anatolian Sweetgum Forests, which is a relic-endemic forest ecosystem which has a natural distribution only in southwestern Anatolia and Rhodes Island and is now on the brink of extinction as a result of human-induced intense habitat fragmentation. As these forests have gallery forest character, they contain water on the ground continuously, and they offer humid microclimate in the winters and summers, it stands out as a structure worthy of examination in terms of the habitat preference of the bats. In this study, the existence and diversity of bats in a forest ecosystem, the relationship between forest and bat, the role of bats in the ecological chain of a forest ecosystem are discussed. Within this scope, diversity, richness, abundance and activity density of the bats within the borders of Köyceğiz-Dalyan Specially Protected Area in Muğla Province of Turkey were analyzed. During this study, between July 2017 and July 2019, the empirical observations in 10 different Anatolian Sweetgum Forests ranging from 30 hectares to 250 hectares, as well as mistnet installation, use of sweepnets, 18 bat boxes (house) placement, use of 1 manual and 2 full-spectrum bat detectors (67 days in total – 1978 voice records) was preferred as a method. As a result of all these studies, the presence of 11 bat species in total was recorded from the Anatolian Sweetgum Forests and related habitats in the surrounding area. Myotis daubentonii, Myotis emarginatus, Pipistrellus nathusii, Pipistrellus pygmaeus, Plecotus macrobullaris species were the first time recorded for the Southwestern Anatolia within this study.