First Records of Mediterranean Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus euryale Blasius, 1853 (Mammalia: Chiroptera) in Romanian Dobrudja, Black Sea Region

Two Mediterranean horseshoe bats Rhinolophus euryale were observed in Romanian Dobrudja on the 12 January 2016. This observation is the first record in Romania of the species away from its Carpathian Range. The two specimens were found hibernating in an abandoned mine shaft in the Padurea i Valea Canaraua Fetii, Iortmac Natural Reserve, near Baneasa, Constanta County, SE Romania. The only published record of the species in this region is from Bulgaria (Malkata Badzhaliya Cave in the valley of the Taban Dry River), about 24 km southwest of the Padurea Canaraua Fetii Natural Reserve. The karst area of the southern part of the Dobrudjan Plateau, which is characterised by dry valleys (former riverbeds) and scattered thermophilous deciduous forests, may represent the sole suitable habitat for the northernmost population of the Mediterranean horseshoe bats near the western shores of the Black Sea.