In June 2018, the Pairi Daiza Foundation and the Walloon Minister of Forestry signed a contract for the management of the public forest of Saint-Michel-Freyr on 1,645 ha, the Nassonia project was born. The ambition of this long-term project is to renature the forest ecosystem and to develop this magnificent woodland in an innovative way, through an integrated and participative management anchored in territorial development.

Nassonia is intended to be a territory for experimentation and study. Among the animal and plant populations that occupy the forest, bats are a particularly interesting group to study because several species are closely dependent on this environment for roosting or feeding. The particular requirements of these species also make them sensitive to changes in management practices and can therefore be good indicators of the relevance of the choices made in forest management.

The present study, conducted in 2020, aims to improve knowledge of the local distribution of species within the wood and the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the use of different parts of the forest by the different species.

The 2020 study was based on 3 complementary monitoring methods:

• passive detector surveys (SM4Bat)
• active detector inventories, in transects
• monitoring of nesting boxes

This report presents the results of this study.