Description
This dataset focuses exclusively on bats that were found by UBRC team members and/or transported to the UBRC facilities in Kharkiv and subsequently examined by specialists using different parameters and measurements. It provides valuable insights into the bat populations of Ukraine, covering 12 species and a total of 20,783 individual bat records from 2022 to 2024. The dataset significantly contributes to the conservation and monitoring of bat populations in northeastern Ukraine.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 20,783 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Vlaschenko A, Kravchenko K, Yerofieieva M, Kulynych A, Putiatina V, Stohnii R, Prylutska A (2025). The dataset of bat (Chiroptera, Mammalia) occurrences in Ukraine collected by the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center (2022-2024). Version 1.3. Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center. Occurrence dataset. https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=2022_2024_ubrc&v=1.3
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: fa800adb-c198-46c1-8bfb-d18a126c2ced. Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Occurrence; Observation
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0616-8050
- Originator
- Originator
- Originator
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- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
Geographic Coverage
The dataset includes occurrence records from Kharkiv city and its surrounding areas in northeastern Ukraine.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [49.632, 36.115], North East [50.11, 36.457] |
|---|
Taxonomic Coverage
This dataset covers bats from the order Chiroptera. All the recorded bats belong to the family Vespertilionidae. In total, 11 bat species and one subspecies are represented in the dataset. The nomenclature for most species in the dataset has remained consistent over the past decade, and their taxonomic status is well-established (Dietz and Kiefer 2014). Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl, 1817), presented in Europe by two taxa well-distinguishable visually - Pipistrellus kuhlii kuhlii (Kuhl, 1817) and Pipistrellus kuhlii lepidus (Blyth, 1845) (Andriollo et al. 2015, Sachanowicz et al. 2017). However, there was not a clear view of the systematic status of these two taxa, do they just morphs or true subspecies (Sachanowicz et al. 2017). For the whole of the Ukrainian territory only P. k. lepidus was distinguished till now (Sachanowicz et al. 2017, Hukov et al. 2020). All the bats from P. kuhlii s.l. species group presented in this dataset belongs to P. k. lepidus.
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Mammalia |
| Order | Chiroptera |
| Family | Vespertilionidae |
Temporal Coverage
| Formation Period | 2022-06-02 / 2024-12-31 |
|---|
Project Data
The dataset was prepared under realization of two projects. The project "Preservation of Scientific Heritage of Nature Reserves and National Parks Affected by the War " was aimed on collecting, digitalization and preservation of data on biodiversity records in Ukraine.
| Title | Preservation of Scientific Heritage of Nature Reserves and National Parks Affected by the War |
|---|---|
| Identifier | 09-12-2024 |
| Funding | The project "Preservation of Scientific Heritage of Nature Reserves and National Parks Affected by the War " was implemented by the Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group with the support of the Goethe-Institut Ukraine, part of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine. One Health approach to understand, predict and prevent viral emergencies from bats (OneBAT), funded in the framework of the HORIZON-HLTH-2022-DISEASE-07 call |
Sampling Methods
The records of bats for this dataset were done by ordinary people or by specialists of UBRS during bat rescue operations in human settlements. Most of the records represent accidental findings of bats (on the ground or inside the flats/offices). Another smaller part of the records describes the bat hibernation colonies found in buildings during the renovation or window replacement works (Hukov et al. 2020, Kravchenko et al. 2017). The information about bat findings was transferred by citizens to the UBRC through the phone helpline and social media messengers. The UBRC facilities are based in Kharkiv city (NE Ukraine), and all found bats were transported to the UBRC’s office for detailed examination and recording. When a bat was not delivered to the UBRC’s office, its species and sex (if possible) were determined from a picture taken for record (see Prylutska and Vlaschenko 2013). For the current dataset we summarized two types of records: (i) direct (or factual) records consisting of bats that were delivered to the UBRC’s office and examined by specialists (“occurrences” in basiOfRecord term in the dataset); (ii) correspondence records, bats that were identified by picture(s) (“human observations” in basiOfRecord term). During the warm period of the year bats were released back to the wild. In the cold period of the year bats were staying at the UBRC facilities till spring (under suitable for hibernation conditions). Individuals with signs of injuries were examined by a veterinarian and received proper treatment. Bats that were not capable of flying after the treatment, were left at the UBRC for life-long care and rehabilitation. Additionally, protocols for bat care, ringing and releasing to nature have been already published (Domanska et al. 2017, Vlaschenko et al. 2020). Bat species were identified by UBRC workers and specialists using illustrated keys (Dietz and Helversen 2004, Dietz and Kiefer 2014). The methods for identification of bat age, sex and measurements has been already published in detail by members of the UBRC (Hukov et al. 2020, Kravchenko et al. 2017, Prylutska et al. 2021). Specifically, we use three age categories: for the description of bat age (i) juvenile - recently born not flying individuals, (ii) this-year-born individuals (subadult) - usually from the age of 1 till 10-11 months and (iii) adult individuals (Kravchenko et al. 2017). Females of bats with protuberant nipples (1 mm or more in diameter) and milk-white, abraded canine teeth were ranked as adults. Females with flat and pink nipples and pinkish, sharp canine teeth were ranked as first-year individuals (Kravchenko et al. 2017, Prylutska et al. 2021). Males with milky-white and worn canine teeth, big testes (from 7 × 4 mm or more), and distended, filled epididymis were ranked as adults. Males with pinkish and sharp canine teeth, small testes, and small, undescended epididymis were ranked as first year individuals (Kravchenko et al. 2017, Prylutska et al. 2021). Location of each found bat were recorded as exact address (oblast, city, address) and later was geocoded manually, using Google Maps service. For each record coordinate uncertainty is mentioned (in meters). Records for which only settlements were known, georeferenced as geometric centroid of the polygon of the settlement, with coordinate precision calculated as radius of the polygon. We identified it as the radius for each settlement using the official administrative boundary shapefile (https://data.humdata.org/dataset/cod-ab-ukr?), calculation of the square for each settlement and centroids in the QGIS software (QGIS Development Team, 2009. QGIS Geographic Information System. Open Source Geospatial Foundation. URL http://qgis.org).
| Study Extent | The dataset includes direct records of bats that were physically found and handled by specialists between 2022 and 2024 in Ukraine. All individuals included in the dataset underwent examination by trained zoologists at the time of finding. |
|---|---|
| Quality Control | All bats included in this dataset were directly examined by qualified zoologists. For each individual, the species, sex, age class, forearm length (to 0.1 mm precision), and body mass (to 0.1 g) were recorded. When available, reproductive status was also assessed. Most individuals collected from the 2000s onward were fitted with uniquely numbered aluminium rings labeled “Kyiv, Ukraine” (Aranea, Poland). Recaptures of previously ringed individuals were recorded as separate events. Species identification followed standard European keys (Dietzitem-0 & Helversen 2004; Dietz & Kiefer 2014). In older cases or when morphological features were insufficient for exact species determination, identification was limited to the genus level. Records with doubtful identification were excluded from the final dataset to ensure taxonomic accuracy. |
Method step description:
- Identification of bat species, sex and age, measuring body mass and forearm length, ringing the bats with bat rings. Completing google sheets with all bat details and measurements, date and place of the record.
- Aggregating occurrence records.
- Manual georeferencing: Each record was assigned geographic coordinates based on locality descriptions using Google Maps.
- Data post-processing using Darwin Core terms (Wieczorek et al. 2012);
- Data cleaning using OpenRefine (OpenRefine 2022).
Bibliographic Citations
- Andriollo T, Naciri Y, Ruedi M (2015) Two mitochondrial barcodes for one biological species: the case of European Kuhl’s pipistrelles (Chiroptera). PLoS ONE, 10 (8), e0134881.
- Dietz C, Helversen O.von (2004) Illustrated identification key to the bats of Europe. Electronic Publication, Version 1.0. released 15.12.2004, Tuebingen & Erlangen (Germany).
- Dietz C, Kiefer A (2014) The Bats of Europe. Know, Identify, Protect [Die Fledermäuse Europas. Kennen, Bestimmen, Schützen] Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart, 400 pp. [in German].
- Domanska A, Prylutska A, Vlaschenko A, Holovchenko O, Kovalov V, Orlenko A (2017) Bat treatment experience in Bat Rehabilitation Center of Feldman Ecopark in 2017 year. XXVI Ogólnopolska Konferencja Chiropterologiczna, Wiezyca, Poland 17-19 November 2017. Wiezyca, 44 pp.
- Hukov V, Timofieieva O, Prylutska A, Rodenko O, Moiseienko M, Bohodist V, Domanska A, Vlaschenko A (2020) Wintering of an urban bat (Pipistrellus kuhlii lepidus) in recently occupied areas. European Journal of Ecology, 6, 102–120 pp.
- Kravchenko K, Vlaschenko A, Prylutska A, Rodenko O, Hukov V, Shuvaev V (2017) Year-round monitoring of bat records in an urban area: Kharkiv (NE Ukraine), 2013, as a case study. Turkish Journal of Zoology, 41 (3), 530–548 pp.
- OpenRefine (2025) OpenRefine: A free, open source, powerful tool for working with messy data. 3.9.3.
- Sachanowicz K, Piskorski M, Tereba A (2017) Systematics and taxonomy of Pipistrellus kuhlii (Kuhl,1817) in Central Europe and the Balkans. Zootaxa, 4306 (1), 053–066 pp.
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | fa800adb-c198-46c1-8bfb-d18a126c2ced |
|---|---|
| https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=2022_2024_ubrc |