Assessment of the conservation status of Little Horseshoe Nose, Big Mouse Ear and Pug Bat in the Gesäuse National Park

The three species described below are assessed on the basis of the population and habitat quality indicators, from which the conservation status is to be determined. In addition to Carinthia, Styria is one of the main distribution areas of the Little Horseshoe Nose in Austria. Like the Little Horseshoe Nose, the Great Mouse Ear is one of the inhabitants of large, quiet attics. While the data situation in the summer is relatively good due to the manageable colonies, in the winter hardly a reasonable statement about populations can be made, since only a fraction of the animals known from the summer are found again in the winter quarters. Pug bats are in contrast to the other two species crevice inhabitants, whereby mainly protruding bark or tree caves on old or dead wood but also huts and other human buildings can be colonized.