Population Genetic Structure of Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus Euryale in Serbia

Abstract

Mediterranean horseshoe bat is considered to be mostly sedentary species, with seasonal movements usually shorter than 50 km. Known roosts of Rhinolophus euryale in Serbia are distributed in western and eastern parts of the country, overlapping with karst distribution. All but one roosts recorded in last 50 years were caves. The distance between caves in Western and Eastern Serbia is greater than 150 km, and the environment between them is devoid of caves. Furthermore, there were no recent records of this species from Central Serbia. Bearing in mind the non-migratory nature of this species, our aim was to test for population structuring (isolation by distance pattern) among different geographic regions.