Workshops
Besides the major program issues the Conference provides a platform to ad hoc workshops - short informal sessions aimed at operative resolution of specific problems, methodical or conceptual issues related to study of bats etc.
The workshops should be announced prior to the Conference at the Conference web page. It is strongly recommended that the conveners of a workshop disseminate an outline of their workshop (including definition of a problem, suggestions for solutions) to applied participants in advance (e.g. by e-mail or via the Conference web page). The workshop session (default at Monday 23 Aug. evening) should be limited to proper goal seeking and effective know-how transfer among the participants.
To apply to any workshop please contact the conveners
Until now, three workshops were proposed.
W1: CEI Workshop
Bats of Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean: implementation of monitoring schemes and conservation measures
The long term monitoring, performed in central Europe for more than 40 years, revealed dramatic variations in population development of particular bat species and remarkable interspecific and interregional differences in the respective trends. Unfortunately, almost no such information is still available from SE Europe and Middle East. The present workshop is an attempt to find the measures to fill the gap.
The workshop is partly sponsored by the CEI funds that should reduce expenses of participants from non-EU countries and enlarge starting platform of the project. The funding from the Central European Initiative is intended to encourage experts in bat research and bat conservation from Central, Eastern and Southern Europe as well as those from Middle East to take part in the 15th International Bat Research Conference and share their experience in monitoring and conservation of bats in their countries. The workshop expectes to (a) refine information on current distribution and conservation status of particular bat species in the region, and (b) establish a common scheme of long-term monitoring of bat populations in the region operating with unified methods and common outputs, and (c) propose a platform for further monitoring and cooperation in bat studies and bat conservation in the region.
Workshop W1 conveners:
Zdeněk Řehák, Masaryk Univ. Brno, Kotlarska 2, Brno, Czech Republic,
Marcel Uhrin, P. J. Šafárik University, Moyzesova 11, SK-040 01 Košice, Slovakia
Radek Lučan, Ivan Horáček, Charles Univ. Praha, Czech Republic
W2:
White Nose Syndrome in Europe: state of knowledge and the Action plan
A new disease, white-nose syndrome (WNS), is causing unprecedented mortality of six species of bats in the north-eastern USA. The essential agent of WNS is a newly described fungus, Geomyces destructans. Recent publications have confirmed the presence of G. destructans colonising several species of European bats in France and other European countries (Puechmaille et al. 2010; Wibbelt et al. under review), and ongoing studies of samples from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovakia are being undertaken to confirm whether a suspected fungus growing on hibernating bat snouts and wings is indeed G. destructans. Despite finding colonisation of G. destructans in European bats, to date no case of WNS has been found in Europe (Barlow et al. 2009; Puechmaille et al. 2010). In contrast to the American bats, European bats exhibiting G. destructans growth were in good body condition. Nevertheless, appearance and possible further development of the fungus interaction with bats call for a detailed study and long-term monitoring. The international consortium compiled the European Action plan and the program of a large-scale monitoring. The aim of the workshop is to refine the way of international co-operation, to survey the current status of knowledge across Europe and /or to specify issues of the Action plan and its implications as necessary.
Workshop W2 conveners:
Sébastien Puechmaille, University College Dublin (Zoology), Dublin, Ireland
Natália Martínková, Institute of Vertebrate Biology Acad.Sci.CR, Brno, Czech Republic
W3:
The Mediterranean Fruit bat, Rousettus aegyptiacus: distribution, abundance trends and monitoring
The Mediterranean range of Rousettus aegyptiacus is the only offshoot of the family range beyond tropes. The conveners of the workshop succeeded to map it into considerable details, demonstrating that the pattern of its local distribution and genetic variation in the Mediterranean are for more reasons specific and unique, and also that there are considerable differences among particular regions in abundance trends, roosting strategy and supposedly also reproduction cycle. In general, the Mediterranean fruit bat is the species worth of intensive study and considerable conservation interest. These facts motivated the present workshop that intends (a) to assemble bat researchers interested in Rousettus, in particular those working in countries inhabited by the species, (b) to standardize techniques of field data collection and refine ways of sharing data and mutual co-operation, and (c) to establish program of long-term monitoring of abundance and reproductive status of all local populations - and, last but not least, effective conservation measures.
Workshop W3 Conveners
Radek Lučan, Ivan Horáček
Department of Zoology, Charles Univ. Praha
