DNA metabarcoding data from faecal samples of the lesser (Myotis blythii) and the greater (Myotis myotis) mouse-eared bats from Bulgaria

A comprehensive understanding of trophic interactions in terrestrial ecosystems is crucial for ecological research and conservation. Recent advances in non-invasive methods, such as DNA metabarcoding, have enabled researchers to collect vast amounts of data on wild animal diets. However, sharing this data and metadata effectively and transparently presents new challenges. To address this, a new type of scholarly journal publication has emerged that aims to describe datasets rather than report research investigations. In this paper, we present a dataset of consumed prey species and parasites based on the metabarcoding of 113 faecal samples from the greater and lesser mouse-eared bats (Myotis myotis and Myotis blythii), along with a detailed description of the data sampling, laboratory analysis, and bioinformatics pipeline. Our dataset comprises 1018 unique Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) from 12 Classes and 43 Orders. In addition, we provide interactive Krona charts to visually summarize th..., Sampling
Geographic Coverage
Faecal samples were collected from individual bats at the entrance of the Orlova Chucka cave, Pepelina, Dve Mogili District, Bulgaria (N 43.593240 E 25.960108). The cave is inhabited by 15 bat species all year round. In summer, however, it is predominantly occupied by mixed maternity colonies of M. myotis and M. blythii, as well as Rhinolophus euryale and Rhinolophus mehelyi (Borissov 2010). Mouse-eared bats are highly mobile with a hunting range of about 23 km around the cave (Egert-Berg et al 2018, Stidsholt et al. 2023). While we collected the faecal samples at the cave entrance, our effective sampling area thus matches the foraging area of the bats, covering an area of approximately 1600 km2. Notably, a large proportion of the foraging grounds of the bats are in protected areas including NATURA 2000 sites and the Rusenski Lom Natural Park (Borissov 2009). The preferred foraging sites of the mouse-eared bats in the study area consist of small-scale agricu...,