Danny Haelewaters
Research Group Mycology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; Operation Wallacea Ltd, Wallace House, Old Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, PE23 4EX, United Kingdom; Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Chad T. Beranek
School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Biology Building, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia; FAUNA Research Alliance, PO Box 5092, Kahibah, NSW 2290, Australia
Fernando Gonçalves
Department of Biodiversity, Institute of Bioscience, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil; Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Joel Monzón González
Proyecto CUBABAT, Calle América # 6503 (Altos) e/ Jáuregui y Santa Isabel. 40100, Matanzas. Cuba; Fundación “Antonio Núñez Jiménez” de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Calle 5ta B, No. 6611 e/ 66 y 70, Miramar, Playa, La Habana Cuba; Sociedad Espeleológica de Cuba (SEC), Calle 9na. #8402 e/ 84 y 84ª. Playa. La Habana, Cuba
Ma. Niña Regina M. Quibod
Center for Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yunnan, P.R. China; International College of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China; Museum of Natural History of the University of the Philippines, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines
Abstract
Understanding biodiversity patterns as well as drivers of population declines, and range losses provides crucial baselines for monitoring and conservation. However, the information needed to evaluate such trends remains unstandardised and sparsely available for many taxonomic groups and habitats, including the cave-dwelling bats and cave ecosystems. Here, we present the DarkCideS 1.0, a global database of bat caves and bat species based on curated data from the literature, personal collections, and existing datasets. The database contains information for geographical distribution, ecological status, species traits, and parasites and hyperparasites for 679 bat species known to occur in caves or use caves in their life-histories. The database contains 6746 georeferenced occurrences for 402 cave-dwelling bat species from 2002 cave sites in 46 countries and 12 terrestrial biomes. The database has been developed to be a collaborative, open-access, and user-friendly platform, allowing continuous data-sharing among the community of bat researchers and conservation biologists. The database has a range of potential applications in bat research and enables comparative monitoring and prioritisation for conservation.
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