Cave Ecosystems of Turkey and Northern Cyprus: A Hidden World for Bats

Abstract

Cave ecosystems along with particularly its unique and fragile biota are very sensitive to degradation and destructions caused by humans. Bats are one of the considerable component of the cave biota and classified as trogloxenes. Most of the bat species mainly prefers karstic caves for forming clusters. Thirty-nine and 22 bat species are distributed in Turkey and Cyprus, respectively. Egyptian fruit bat, Greater and lesser mouse-eared bats, bent-winged bat, Kuhl’s pipistrelle and Greater horseshoe bat are the most abundant species encountered in the field trips. Two major periods are mostly important for bat life cycle; gestation along with lactating periods that formed in spring and summer months and hibernation period in winter months. Besides, many invertebrate species adapted to living in the permanent darkness are also detected from various caves in this study. Major threats to both caves and cave biota in Turkey and North Cyprus are recorded as; use of cave enterances as animal shelters,  wastewater drainage and dump, marble quarrying, inappropriate guano mining, cave tourism, cure for illness, dam construction and mushroom cultivation. Studies were initiated for the conservation of caves in both countries.

Keywords

• Chiroptera,cave biota,caustic caves,invertebrates,Turkey,TRNC

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