Meetnetten.be - Bat maternity roosts counts Flanders, Belgium

Sampling event Observation
Latest version published by Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) on Jun 20, 2025 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
Publication date:
20 June 2025
License:
CC0 1.0

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 330 records in English (19 KB) - Update frequency: as needed
Metadata as an EML file download in English (22 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (16 KB)

Description

Meetnetten.be - Bat maternity roosts counts Flanders, Belgium is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It is part of the Meetnetten.be suite of monitoring networks for priority species in Flanders, in which data are collected at fixed locations using a standardized protocol (https://meetnetten.be). This dataset contains bat maternity roosts count data of four target bat species (Geoffroy's bat, Brown long-eared bat, Grey long-eared bat and Serotine bat). Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each sampling event an eventID, date, location and sampling protocol (in the event core), and for each occurrence an occurrenceID, the number of recorded individuals, status (present/absent) and scientific name (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/meetnetten-occurrences/issues

Generalized and/or withheld information: as this dataset includes sensitive priority species, location information is generalized for all bat species to 5 or 10 km Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid cells. Original locations are available upon request.

We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be.

For all published Meetnetten.be datasets, see https://www.gbif.org/dataset/search?project_id=meetnetten.be

Data Records

The data in this sampling event 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 330 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Event (core)
330
Occurrence 
399

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.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 1446ada0-18f3-4508-9025-8876f40826a0.  Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Samplingevent; Observation; bats; monitoring; priority species; Flanders

Contacts

Frederic Piesschaert
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Luc De Bruyn
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Ralf Gyselings
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Daan Dekeukeleire
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Stijn Cooleman
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Belgian Biodiversity Platform
BE
Dimitri Brosens
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Toon Westra
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Peter Desmet
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Sanne Ruyts
Elke Roels
Marc Pollet
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Natuurpunt Vleermuizenwerkgroep Vlaanderen
vleermuizen@natuurpunt.be
BE

Geographic Coverage

Flanders, Belgium

Bounding Coordinates South West [50.67, 2.53], North East [51.51, 5.94]

Taxonomic Coverage

The four target species of bat maternity roosts counts in Meetnetten.be are listed at https://meetnetten.be/#group-9 (as emergence and attic counts). Other bat species observed during these count events are also included.

Kingdom Animalia
Class Mammalia
Order Chiroptera
Species Eptesicus serotinus (Serotine bat), Plecotus auritus (Brown long-eared bat), Plecotus austriacus (Grey long-eared bat), Myotis emarginatus (Geoffroy's bat)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1999-07-01 / 2024-12-31

Project Data

Meetnetten.be is a suite of monitoring networks through which the Flemish Government is collecting high-quality information on 65 priority plant and animal species. These are species on which Flanders has to report to Europe in the framework of the Habitats and Birds Directives, but also other species that are important for the Flemish nature policy.

Title Meetnetten.be
Identifier meetnetten.be
Funding Flemish Government
Study Area Description Flanders, Belgium
Design Description Each monitoring network consists of fixed sample locations in which target species are counted based on a standardized protocol. Data collection relies mainly on specialized volunteers, coordinated by the NGO Natuurpunt Studie. Fieldwork is planned and monitored with the web tool https://meetnetten.be, which is also used for entering the collected data.

The personnel involved in the project:

Frederic Piesschaert

Sampling Methods

For Serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus), Brown long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) and Grey long-eared bat (Plecotus austriacus), two emergence counts took place outside the selected maternity roosts each year: one before juveniles emerge (late May - early June) and one when both adults and juveniles emerge (late July - early August). Emergence counts were conducted from 15 minutes before sunset until 15 minutes after the last bat had exited the building (if no bats were observed, the count lasted until 1 hour after sunset). Emergence counts were supported with handheld ultrasonic detectors, and in some cases with thermal imaging cameras. For Geoffroy's bat (Myotis emarginatus), two complementary protocols were used. Firstly, attic counts inside the roosts: one count took place inside the selected maternity roosts each year, when both adults and juveniles were present (late July - early August). Roosts were visited during the day, and a picture was taken of the bat clusters. The number of bats were then counted on these pictures. Secondly, emergence counts, following the same method as used for the three species mentioned above, were also conducted at one location for a limited period.

Study Extent Within a maximum of 36 squares in a 5x5 km UTM grid, located throughout Flanders, bats are counted at maternity roosts during late spring or summer.
Quality Control Data are collected using predefined sampling protocols.

Method step description:

  1. Researchers from INBO and Natuurpunt Studie define and document the appropriate sampling protocols for the target species.
  2. Fieldwork is planned and coordinated by Natuurpunt Studie, using https://meetnetten.be.
  3. Data are collected in the field by specialized volunteers, using the predefined sampling protocols.
  4. Volunteers enter the collected data in https://meetnetten.be.
  5. A custom SQL view is created in the meetnetten.be database (exceptionally combining two protocolIDs due to their complementarity) to map the original data to Darwin Core as an event core and occurrence extension.
  6. The Darwin Core views are connected to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
  7. The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

Additional Metadata

We like to thank the many volunteers for their input in creating this dataset, especially Hans Vermeiren, Bob vandendriessche, Alex Lefevre, Kris Boers and René Janssen.

Acknowledgements We like to thank the many volunteers for their input in creating this dataset, especially Hans Vermeiren, Bob vandendriessche, Alex Lefevre, Kris Boers and René Janssen.
Alternative Identifiers 1446ada0-18f3-4508-9025-8876f40826a0
https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=meetnetten-vleermuizen-uitvliegtellingen-occurrences