1 urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:F9B2E808-C883-5F47-B276-6D62129E4FF4 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:245B00E9-BFE5-4B4F-B76E-15C30BA74C02 Biodiversity Data Journal BDJ 1314-2836 1314-2828 Pensoft Publishers 10.3897/BDJ.12.e132199 132199 23800 Data Paper (Biosciences) Chiroptera Biodiversity & Conservation Jordan Turkey Pakistan Azerbaijan Oman Georgia Armenia Distribution of bat species in Western Asia: Occurrence records from the Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project Phelps Kendra phelps@ecohealthalliance.org https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3120-4802 1 Conceptualization Writing - original draft Writing - review and editing Data curation Formal analysis Investigation Methodology Project administration Supervision Al Abdulasalam Zahran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2996-8205 2 Writing - review and editing Investigation Project administration Resources Al-Hmoud Nisreen 3 4 Writing - review and editing Investigation Project administration Supervision Ali Shahzad 5 Writing - review and editing Investigation Project administration Supervision Alrwashdeh Mumen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0090-5286 3 Writing - review and editing Data curation Investigation Methodology Supervision Attaullah 5 Writing - review and editing Investigation Bilgin Rasit https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4575-4485 6 Writing - review and editing Data curation Formal analysis Investigation Project administration Supervision Ghazaryan Astghik 7 Writing - review and editing Data curation Investigation Project administration Supervision Hamel Luke 1 Conceptualization Writing - original draft Writing - review and editing Data curation Formal analysis Investigation Project administration Visualization Hasanov Nijat 8 Writing - review and editing Data curation Investigation Project administration Supervision Natradze Ioseb https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7582-7884 9 Writing - review and editing Investigation Papov George 7 Writing - review and editing Investigation Sidamonidze Ketevan 10 Writing - review and editing Data curation Investigation Project administration Supervision Spalton Andrew 11 Writing - review and editing Investigation Supervision Urushadze Lela 10 Writing - review and editing Data curation Investigation Project administration Supervision Olival Kevin J olival@ecohealthalliance.org https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3211-1875 1 Conceptualization Writing - original draft Writing - review and editing Formal analysis Funding acquisition Methodology Project administration Supervision EcoHealth Alliance, New York City, United States of America EcoHealth Alliance New York City United States of America Environment Authority, Muscat, Oman Environment Authority Muscat Oman Bio-Safety and Bio-Security Centre, Royal Scientific Society, Amman, Jordan Bio-Safety and Bio-Security Centre, Royal Scientific Society Amman Jordan Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Amman, Jordan Princess Sumaya University for Technology Amman Jordan Department of Wildlife & Ecology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan Department of Wildlife & Ecology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore Pakistan Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkiye Institute of Environmental Sciences, Bogazici University Istanbul Turkiye Department of Zoology, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia Department of Zoology, Yerevan State University Yerevan Armenia Institute of Zoology, Ministry of Science and Education, Baku, Azerbaijan Institute of Zoology, Ministry of Science and Education Baku Azerbaijan Institute of Zoology, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia Institute of Zoology, Ilia State University Tbilisi Georgia R. Lugar Center, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Tbilisi, Georgia R. Lugar Center, National Center for Disease Control and Public Health Tbilisi Georgia Wildlife consultant, Muscat, Oman Wildlife consultant Muscat Oman

Corresponding authors: Kendra Phelps (phelps@ecohealthalliance.org), Kevin J Olival (olival@ecohealthalliance.org).

Academic editor: Miguel Camacho Sanchez

 2024 21 08 2024 12 e132199 D1D4CC55-D1EA-560B-8536-2989282B3C25 16 07 2024 09 08 2024 Kendra Phelps, Zahran Al Abdulasalam, Nisreen Al-Hmoud, Shahzad Ali, Mumen Alrwashdeh, Attaullah, Rasit Bilgin, Astghik Ghazaryan, Luke Hamel, Nijat Hasanov, Ioseb Natradze, George Papov, Ketevan Sidamonidze, Andrew Spalton, Lela Urushadze, Kevin J Olival This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Background

Western Asia represents a mixing pot of diverse bat species with distributions spanning across other geographic regions. Yet, relative to other regions, there is a significant gap in coordinated bat research in Western Asia, thereby resulting in a relatively limited number of curated occurrence records.

 New information

The Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project was created to strengthen research capacity and knowledge of the diversity and distribution of bat species in a little-studied region, as well as to collect data to characterise the diversity and prevalence of coronaviruses in diverse bat species. Over a four-year period (2018–2022), we documented 4,278 individual records for 41 bat species using a cross-sectional survey approach at 50 sites in seven Western Asian countries, specifically Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan and Turkiye. At each site, we captured, on average, 90 individual bats (range: 9-131) over multiple consecutive nights and used standardised methods to collect demographic and morphological data from captured individuals. We additionally completed a systematic evaluation of environmental characterisation and human-bat interactions at all 50 sites. Here, we report individual occurrence records and site conditions from this multi-country, multi-year sampling effort.

 Chiroptera Middle East West Asia biodiversity mammal This research was funded by the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (HDTRA11710064). The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Introduction

Western Asia serves as a convergence point for bat species originating from diverse geographic regions, including North Africa, South Asia and Europe, with the majority of these species distributed in more than one region. However, research on bat species in Western Asia is limited in comparison to other geographic regions (Phelps et al. 2019) and primarily concentrated on documenting bat diversity and distribution in a single country (Shehab et al. 2007, Benda et al. 2011, Benda and Uhrin 2019, Abdulrahman et al. 2021) or across neighbouring countries, such as the Arabian Peninsula (Harrison and Bates 1991).

Systematic bat survey data are invaluable to support both conservation and zoonotic disease research efforts (Phelps et al. 2019). In Western Asia, much of the bat locality data are based on historical surveys or museum collections, which were often collected opportunistically and within a more limited geographic scope. The collection of occurrence data from ongoing field surveys using standardised methods is critical to providing a more comprehensive picture of bat species distribution, abundance and diversity. This is especially true today given active and growing threats to bats in most parts of the world (Frick et al. 2020), including factors like climate change that are leading to range shifts and contractions for many species (Festa et al. 2022). At the same time, bats are important reservoir hosts for zoonotic diseases, including several emerging human and livestock viruses. Field-collected occurrence data can improve our understanding of bat-microbial (e.g. viruses, bacteria, protozoa) dynamics and provide information for surveillance efforts and disease risk mitigation (Olival et al. 2017, Sánchez et al. 2022).

 General description Purpose

The Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project was created to strengthen research capacity and knowledge of the diversity and distribution of bat species in a little-studied region, as well as to collect data to characterise bat-associated coronaviruses (Phelps et al. 2019). More details on the WAB-Net project are available at www.wabnet.org.

 Additional information

Over a four-year period (2018-2022), we conducted standardised, cross-sectional sampling of bat populations at 50 sites in seven Western Asian countries, specifically Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan and Turkiye.

 Sampling methods Sampling description

Bats were captured primarily using harp traps and mist nets set in flyways or at the entrance to caves or anthropogenic structures in which bats were roosting. On rare occasions, bats were extracted from crevices with hand-held hoop nets. Trapping began approximately 30 minutes prior to sunset, with trapping duration dependent on capture rate (i.e. to prevent capture of more individuals than can be safely processed in a single night), but on average, nightly trapping duration was 4.8 hours. Captured bats were placed individually in a porous cloth bag and hung in a quiet, dry location away from predators. Standard morphological measurements (i.e. forearm length (mm) and body mass (g)) and demographic information (i.e. sex, age class and reproductive status) of each captured bat were recorded. Expert opinion was relied upon for species identification in the field and, when needed, additional morphological measurements, such as ear length (mm), tail length (mm), hind foot length (mm) and head and body length (mm) along with acoustic recordings, were used to aid in identification. Species identification was later confirmed for a subset of individuals of each species per site from each country via barcoding the cytochrome b gene using previously published methods (Townsen et al. 2008). Bats were immediately released at the original site of capture.

Field team members adhered to biosafety protocols established by the PREDICT Consortium (PREDICT Consortium 2020), including the use of personal protective equipment (i.e. field-dedicated clothing and close-toed shoes that could be disinfected, an N95 respirator mask, double-layer nitrile gloves and eye protection) during the capture, handling and sampling of bats. All methods were approved by the Tufts University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocols #G2018-01 and #G2020-127) and the USAMRDC Animal Care and Use Review Office (protocol #CT-2017-12).

 Geographic coverage Description

We captured bats at 50 sites in seven Western Asian countries, specifically Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan and Turkiye (Fig. 1). The map was created in R version 4.3.2 (R Core Team 2023) using the following packages: "ggrepel" (Slowikowski 2024), "ggspatial" (Dunnington 2023), "rnaturalearth" (Massicotte and South 2023) and "tidyverse" (Wickham et al. 2019).

Locality information and sampling dates for each site are presented in Table 1, with more detailed information about site conditions presented in Suppl. material 3.

 Taxonomic coverage Description

We captured 4,278 individual bats of 41 species belonging to nine families, which represents 43.2% of the 95 bat species distributed across the seven focal countries and 35.6% of the 115 bat species documented in Western Asia (Upham et al. 2024). See Suppl. material 1 for detailed information about individual demographic and morphological traits and Suppl. material 2 for final species determination, based on multiple lines of evidence, including DNA barcode results with associated NCBI GenBank accession numbers. It is important to emphasise that, while the cytochrome b gene is extensively used to confirm species identifications, it captures only the maternal elements of the genome (Ballard and Whitlock 2003). Therefore, conclusions drawn solely from short fragments of the mitochondrial DNA may not be reliable enough to correctly differentiate closely related species (Ruedi et al. 2023). Such is the case for two sibling bat species, Myotis blythii and M. myotis (Furman et al. 2012), which are thought to undergo cryptic hybridisation in geographic areas of sympatry in Western Asia (i.e. Turkiye) (Berthier et al. 2006). Therefore, in addition to DNA barcoding results, which were not informative in some instances, data on morphology, geographic distribution, and/or acoustic recordings was also used to confirm species identifications.

Below, scientific names followed by "*" or "**" indicate a conservation status of "Near Threatened" or "Vulnerable", respectively, as designated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2024).

 Taxa included
Rank Scientific Name Common Name
order Chiroptera Bats
family Emballonuridae Sheath-tailed Bats
species Taphozous nudiventris Naked-rumped Tomb Bat
species Taphozous perforatus Egyptian Tomb Bat
family Hipposideridae Old World leaf-nosed Bats
species Asellia arabica Arabian Trident Leaf-nosed Bat
species Asellia tridens Geoffroy's Trident Leaf-nosed Bat
family Miniopteridae Bent-winged Bats
species Miniopterus pallidus* Pallid Long-fingered Bat
species Miniopterus schreibersii** Schreibers' Long-fingered Bat
family Nycteridae Slit-faced Bats
species Nycteris thebaica Egyptian Slit-faced Bat
family Pteropodidae Old World Fruit Bats
species Rousettus aegyptiacus Egyptian Rousette
species Rousettus leschenaultii* Leschenault's Rousette
family Rhinolophidae Horseshoe Bats
species Rhinolophus blasii Blasius' Horseshoe Bat
species Rhinolophus clivosus Geoffroy's Horseshoe Bat
species Rhinolophus euryale* Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat
species Rhinolophus ferrumequinum Greater Horseshoe Bat
species Rhinolophus hipposideros Lesser Horseshoe Bat
species Rhinolophus lepidus Blyth's Horseshoe Bat
species Rhinolophus mehelyi** Mehely's Horseshoe Bat
family Rhinonycteridae Trident Bats
species Triaenops persicus Persian Trident Bat
family Rhinopomatidae Mouse-tailed Bats
species Rhinopoma cystops Arabian Mouse-tailed Bat
species Rhinopoma microphyllum Greater Mouse-tailed Bat
species Rhinopoma muscatellum Muscat Mouse-tailed Bat
family Vespertilionidae Vesper Bats
species Barbastella caspica Caspian Barbastelle
species Cnephaeus (Eptesicus) serotinus Eurasian Serotine
species Hypsugo savii Savi's Pipistrelle
species Myotis alcathoe Alcathoe Whiskered Myotis
species Myotis blythii Lesser Myotis
species Myotis capaccinii** Long-fingered Myotis
species Myotis daubentonii Daubenton's Myotis
species Myotis davidii David's Myotis
species Myotis emarginatus Geoffroy's Myotis
species Myotis myotis Greater Myotis
species Myotis nattereri Natterer's Myotis
species Myotis tschuliensis Tschuli Myotis
species Pipistrellus javanicus Javan Pipistrelle
species Pipistrellus kuhlii Kuhl's Pipistrelle
species Pipistrellus nathusii Nathusius's Pipistrelle
species Pipistrellus pipistrellus Common Pipistrelle
species Pipistrellus pygmaeus Soprano Pipistrelle
species Plecotus auritus Brown Long-eared Bat
species Plecotus macrobullaris Alpine Long-eared Bat
species Scotophilus heathii Greater Asian Yellow Bat
species Scotophilus kuhlii Lesser Asian Yellow Bat
Temporal coverage Notes

August 2018 - January 2022

 Usage licence Usage licence

Other

 IP rights notes

Usage of reported data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

 Data resources Data package title

The Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project

 Resource link

https://www.gbif.org/dataset/7c56c0cb-66e3-4e8f-acb9-db6370c87451

Number of data sets

1

 Data set 1. Data set name

The Western Asia Bat Research Network (WAB-Net) project

 Data format

Darwin Core Format (https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/)

 Description

Occurrence records for 4,278 individual bats from 41 species captured across 50 sites in seven Western Asian countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan and Turkiye) between 2018-2022.

Column label Column description
occurrenceID An identifier for the dwc:Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the dwc:Occurrence).
basisOfRecord The specific nature of the data record.
eventDate The date-time or interval during which a dwc:Event occurred. For occurrences, this is the date-time when the dwc:Event was recorded.
scientificName The full scientific name, with authorship and date information if known. When forming part of a dwc:Identification, this should be the name in lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined. This term should not contain identification qualifications, which should instead be supplied in the dwc:identificationQualifier term.
higherClassification A list (concatenated and separated) of taxon names terminating at the rank immediately superior to the referenced dwc:Taxon.
kingdom The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
phylum The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
class The full scientific name of the class in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
order The full scientific name of the order in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
family The full scientific name of the family in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
genus The full scientific name of the genus in which the dwc:Taxon is classified.
specificEpithet The name of the first or species epithet of the dwc:scientificName.
taxonRank The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the dwc:scientificName.
lifeStage The age class or life stage of the dwc:Organism(s) at the time the dwc:Occurrence was recorded.
sex The sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the dwc:Occurrence.
reproductiveCondition Categorisation of individuals for eusocial species (including some mammals and arthropods).
identifiedBy A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who assigned the dwc:Taxon to the subject.
dateIdentified The date on which the subject was determined as representing the dwc:Taxon.
decimalLatitude The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in dwc:geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a dcterms:Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive.
decimalLongitude The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in dwc:geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a dcterms:Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive.
geodeticDatum The ellipsoid, geodetic datum or spatial reference system (SRS), upon which the geographic coordinates given in dwc:decimalLatitude and dwc:decimalLongitude are based.
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres The horizontal distance (in metres) from the given dwc:decimalLatitude and dwc:decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the dcterms:Location. Leave the value empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates). Zero is not a valid value for this term.
dataGeneralisations Actions taken to make the shared data less specific or complete than in its original form. Suggests that alternative data of higher quality may be available on request.
georeferencedDate The date on which the dcterms:Location was georeferenced.
georeferenceSources A list (concatenated and separated) of maps, gazetteers or other resources used to georeference the dcterms:Location, described specifically enough to allow anyone in the future to use the same resources.
georeferenceVerificationStatus A categorical description of the extent to which the georeference has been verified to represent the best possible spatial description for the dcterms:Location of the dwc:Occurrence.
higherGeography A list (concatenated and separated) of geographic names less specific than the information captured in the dwc:locality term.
continent The name of the continent in which the dcterms:Location occurs.
country The name of the country or major administrative unit in which the dcterms:Location occurs.
countryCode The standard code for the country in which the dcterms:Location occurs.
stateProvince The name of the next smaller administrative region than country (state, province, canton, department, region etc.) in which the dcterms:Location occurs.
county The full, unabbreviated name of the next smaller administrative region than stateProvince (county, shire, department etc.) in which the dcterms:Location occurs.
municipality The full, unabbreviated name of the next smaller administrative region than county (city, municipality etc.) in which the dcterms:Location occurs. Do not use this term for a nearby named place that does not contain the actual dcterms:Location.
locality The specific description of the place.
language A language of the resource.
licence A legal document giving official permission to do something with the resource.
institutionID An identifier for the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record.
institutionCode The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record.
collectionCode The name, acronym, coden or initialism identifying the collection or dataset from which the record was derived.
catalogNumber An identifier (preferably unique) for the record within the dataset or collection.
recordedBy A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organiations responsible for recording the original dwc:Occurrence. The primary collector or observer, especially one who applies a personal identifier (dwc:recordNumber), should be listed first.
preparations A list (concatenated and separated) of preparations and preservation methods for a dwc:MaterialEntity.
otherCatalogNumbers A list (concatenated and separated) of previous or alternative fully qualified catalogue numbers or other human-used identifiers for the same dwc:Occurrence, whether in the current or any other dataset or collection.
previousIdentifications A list (concatenated and separated) of previous assignments of names to the dwc:Organism.
associatedSequences A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers (publication, global unique identifier, URI) of genetic sequence information associated with the dwc:MaterialEntity.
Acknowledgements

We thank the following agencies for permission to conduct this research project: In Armenia (Ministry of Nature Protection, Permit No. 03/577; Ministry of Enviornment, Permit No. 2/10.2.7/3457); in Azerbaijan (Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, Permit No. 21/304); in Georgia (Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Permit No. 4894-01-2-201806081223 and Permit No. 3030-01-2-202103261654); in Jordan (Royal Society for Conservation of Nature, Permit No. 2/238/1/10); in Oman (Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs, Permit No. 6210/10/97 and Permit No. 6210/10/125); in Pakistan (Wildilfe and Parks Department of Punjab Province, Permit No. 4292); in Turkiye (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Permit No. 72784983-488.04 and Permit No. E-21264211-288.04-1581138).

We extend our gratitude to the following field team members: In Armenia (Seda Adamyan, Vanuhi Hambardzumyan, Tatevik Harutyunyan, Tigran Hayrapetyan, Aram Pirumyan, Anna Tadevosyan, Ofik Yelabekyan); in Azerbaijan (Leyla Aliyeva, Sabina Bunyatova, Gulnar Guliyeva, Agil Hakhiyev, Ilaha Kerimli, Sevin Sarukhanova); in Georgia (Maia Chigladze, Rusudan Kodiashvili, Davit Putkaradze, Manana Shanidze, Lamzira Tshkvaradze); in Jordan (Ehab Abu-Basha, Abdallh Al Dwekat, Sief Al Hanandeh, Qusay Al-Khateeb, Zaidoun Hijazeen, Ismail Malkawi, Hani Talafha); in Oman (Ahmed Al Amri, Waheed Al Fazari, Khalifa Al Ghisni, Khalid Al Hikmani, Zakariya Al Kindi, Atika Al Mandari, Abdullah Al Manji, Said Zabanoot); in Pakistan (Abdul Malik, Sajida Noureen, Muhammad Rizwan); in Turkiye (Ekin Azbazdar, Kaan Bayir, Ziya Caylarbasi, Erdem Danyer, Fadime Gencer, Sabri Hacioglu, Evrim Kalkan, Aygun Karacay, Zeynep Kocer, Ayse Mergenci, Selahattin Unsal, Ceylan Yucel); as well as the laboratory team members: in Georgia (Gvantsa Brachveli, Meri Pantsulaia, Ana Papkiauri, Tea Tevdoradze, Giorgi Tomashvilli, Davit Tsaguria); in Jordan (Amany Abdien, Ghadeer Alzghoul); in Turkiye (Fadime Gencer, Aygun Karacay, Yagmur Tarhana).

Lastly, we extend our gratitude to Drs. Paul Bates, Jonathan Epstein, Tigga Kingston, Vincent Munster and Paul Racey for providing general oversight and technical expertise as Scientic Advisory Board members of the WAB-Net.

This research was sponsored by the Department of Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency (HDTRA11710064). The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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Bats were sampled at 50 sites in seven countries across Western Asia, including Armenia (n = 6 sites), Azerbaijan (n = 6), Georgia (n = 10), Jordan (n = 8), Oman (n = 5), Pakistan (n = 2) and Turkiye (n = 13).

https://binary.pensoft.net/fig/1104914

Locality information and sampling dates for sites included in this study. The map code corresponds to sites in Fig. 1. See Suppl. material 3 for more detailed information about each site.

Map code Country Site Latitude(North) Longitude(East) Sampling start date(dd/mm/yyyy) Sampling end date(dd/mm/yyyy)
1 Turkiye Cilingoz Cave 41.52 28.22 21/08/2018 24/08/2018
2 Georgia Ghliana Cave 42.37 42.60 10/09/2018 12/09/2018
3 Jordan Pella Cave 32.44 35.62 04/10/2018 06/10/2018
4 Georgia Letsurtsume Cave 42.54 42.11 07/06/2019 10/06/2019
5 Armenia Areni 1 Cave 39.73 45.20 12/06/2019 16/06/2019
6 Jordan Al-Himmah Cave 32.71 35.68 07/07/2019 09/07/2019
7 Georgia Tetri Senakebi Cave 41.54 45.26 06/08/2019 09/08/2019
8 Turkiye Yaylacik Cave 41.36 28.22 16/08/2019 18/08/2019
9 Jordan Baoun Cave 32.39 35.73 22/08/2019 24/08/2019
10 Turkiye Sofular Cave 41.18 29.51 23/08/2019 27/08/2019
11 Georgia Samertskhle Klde 42.34 43.35 03/09/2019 05/09/2019
12 Azerbaijan Fish Reproduction Plant 39.39 49.36 07/09/2019 09/09/2019
13 Turkiye Dupnisa Cave 41.84 27.56 08/09/2019 11/09/2019
14 Pakistan Noorjahan & Jahangir Tombs 31.62 74.29 15/10/2019 16/10/2019
15 Pakistan Sheikhpura Fort 31.71 73.99 18/10/2019 19/10/2019
16 Jordan Khirbat Al Wahadinah 32.32 35.62 26/10/2019 01/11/2019
17 Oman Muscat Al Khoud Fort 23.57 58.12 03/11/2019 04/11/2019
18 Oman Alhaseela Farm 17.01 54.13 01/03/2020 02/03/2020
19 Oman Suhoor Cave 17.13 54.12 03/03/2020 05/03/2020
20 Georgia Gremi 42.00 45.66 13/07/2020 16/07/2020
21 Turkiye Saykoy Cave 36.95 34.79 03/08/2020 05/08/2020
22 Georgia Becho Cave 42.54 42.00 07/08/2020 12/08/2020
23 Turkiye Sarihidir Tunnel 38.74 34.94 08/08/2020 10/08/2020
24 Armenia Arakelots Vanq 41.03 45.07 11/08/2020 13/08/2020
25 Armenia Shikahogh Mine 39.09 46.48 15/08/2020 17/08/2020
26 Turkiye Sefer Yitigi Cave 37.48 30.53 17/08/2020 20/08/2020
27 Azerbaijan Baligchilar Village 38.95 48.92 20/08/2020 22/08/2020
28 Turkiye Hidirellez Cave 36.17 29.64 22/08/2020 25/08/2020
29 Georgia Algeti Water Reservoir 41.59 44.53 28/08/2020 02/09/2020
30 Azerbaijan Gakh 41.43 46.91 09/09/2020 11/09/2020
31 Jordan King Talal Dam 32.22 35.88 01/10/2020 01/10/2020
32 Jordan Aqaba Castle 29.52 35.00 12/10/2020 12/10/2020
33 Jordan Saraya-Aqaba 29.54 34.99 13/10/2020 13/10/2020
34 Jordan Kufranjah Cave 32.30 35.70 21/10/2020 22/10/2020
35 Georgia Pichkhovani Church 42.08 45.33 21/06/2021 22/06/2021
36 Turkiye Firat 37.91 38.99 07/07/2021 08/07/2021
37 Turkiye Kahyaoglu 40.99 37.83 13/07/2021 14/07/2021
38 Azerbaijan Jangi Gobustan 40.51 49.28 15/07/2021 17/07/2021
39 Armenia Dilijan 40.75 44.82 29/07/2021 31/07/2021
40 Georgia Grdzeli Chala 42.02 45.62 31/07/2021 07/08/2021
41 Armenia Getashen 39.70 45.56 03/08/2021 05/08/2021
42 Georgia Vardigora 42.25 43.09 03/08/2021 09/08/2021
43 Armenia Jermuk 39.86 45.70 06/08/2021 09/08/2021
44 Turkiye Cayirkoy Cave 41.46 31.99 10/08/2021 11/08/2021
45 Azerbaijan Shaki 41.18 46.98 23/08/2021 25/08/2021
46 Azerbaijan Aghjabadi 40.12 47.57 10/09/2021 12/09/2021
47 Turkiye Harbiye Cave 36.14 36.14 22/09/2021 26/09/2021
48 Turkiye Narlica Cave 36.22 36.20 27/09/2021 28/09/2021
49 Oman Saarani Falaj 24.22 55.81 16/01/2022 18/01/2021
50 Oman Baidha Tunnel 24.36 56.42 19/01/2022 20/01/2022
E2C00763-AB8E-58D2-AD32-D9B6A0166782 10.3897/BDJ.12.e132199.suppl1

Species occurrence, including demographic and morphological data for each captured individual bat

occurrences, morphology, demography

Detailed information about each of the 4,278 individual bats captured during the WAB-Net project, including taxonomic, demographic and morphologic information.

File: oo_1105880.csv

https://binary.pensoft.net/file/1105880 Kendra Phelps, Zahran Al Abdulasalam, Nisreen Al-Hmoud, Shahzad Ali, Mumen Alrwashdeh, Attaullah, Rasit Bilgin, Astghik Ghazaryan, Luke Hamel, Nijat Hasanov, Ioseb Natradze, George Papov, Ketevan Sidamonidze, Andrew Spalton, Lela Urushadze, Kevin J. Olival 922A07A2-2B07-5A3A-8382-180F187EAC88 10.3897/BDJ.12.e132199.suppl2

Updated species identifications based on multiple lines of evidence

cytB barcoding, species identifications

Update of field species identification based on CytB barcoding results, including associated NCBI GenBank accession numbers, geographic distribution, morphology and/or acoustic signatures.

File: oo_1112428.csv

https://binary.pensoft.net/file/1112428 Kendra Phelps, Zahran Al Abdulasalam, Nisreen Al-Hmoud, Shahzad Ali, Mumen Alrwashdeh, Attaullah, Rasit Bilgin, Astghik Ghazaryan, Luke Hamel, Nijat Hasanov, Ioseb Natradze, George Papov, Ketevan Sidamonidze, Andrew Spalton, Lela Urushadze, Kevin J. Olival FFD9B05F-EF69-5517-AD73-B29BB189E93E 10.3897/BDJ.12.e132199.suppl3

Environmental conditions and potential bat-human contact interfaces

site characteristics

We assessed site-level factors within a 1 km2 radius at each of the 50 sites in which bats were sampled, ranging from site type (e.g. forested habitat, wetland, caves and/or rock crevices), potential bat-human interfaces (e.g. tourism, wildlife market) and evidence of human disturbance (e.g. guano harvesting, bat hunting, fire remnants).

File: oo_1093057.csv

https://binary.pensoft.net/file/1093057 Kendra Phelps, Zahran Al Abdulasalam, Nisreen Al-Hmoud, Shahzad Ali, Mumen Alrwashdeh, Attaullah, Rasit Bilgin, Astghik Ghazaryan, Luke Hamel, Nijat Hasanov, Ioseb Natradze, George Papov, Ketevan Sidamonidze, Andrew Spalton, Lela Urushadze, Kevin J. Olival