During 2015 in the Bat rehabilitation centre (BRC) worked 6 employees, more than 10 young naturalists and volunteers. In January, the BRC has got its own office.
In 2015 was a record number of rescued bats – more than 2,000. Mainly bats were found in Kharkiv city, as well as more than 100 animals were transferred to the rehabilitation centre from other regions of Ukraine (Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Cherkasy region).
11,100 educational units were printed (flyers, pocket and wall calendars, etc..). In 2015, employees of BRC participated in 4 educational campaigns, where presented the work of BRC, distributed printed materials, and answered questions about the bats. In total, these actions involved more than 600 people. 7 lectures about bats for pupils, students and workers of the “Derzhprom” building, totally involved 400 people.
On March 28, Feldman Ecopark held third action “Solemn release of bats in nature”. More than 700 bats were saved during the winter 2014/15. This event was lightened by the press.
In 2015, the BRC spent 12 expeditions lasting from one night up to 8 days. Caught and ringed about 500 animals. Spend a unique work on acoustic identification of bats hunting over ponds of Kharkiv city.
Alona Prylutska defended her PhD thesis “Summer bat population in the forests of central part of the East European Plain: inventory and monitoring using mist nets” at the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv city). Anna Suvorova defended her master’s thesis “Acoustic monitoring of bats (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) of Kharkov city” at the St. Petersburg State University.
In 2015, employees of BRC published 3 articles and 10 conference abstracts (2 of them in: Hystrix, the Italian Journal of Mammalogy and Russian Journal of Ecology). BRC organized 12 internal workshops in order to increase the professional level of employees, volunteers and naturalists.
In 2015, employees of BRC participated in 2 international (Germany, Poland), one Ukrainian, one regional and 2 young naturalists conferences; The BRC also conducted its own report conference. Researcher of BRC – Ksenia Kravchenko was awarded the prestigious International Award for Sustainable Development “Green Talents” from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany. Forum for the winners of 2015 was held in October in Berlin.