Participants of the First European Small Mammal Conservation Conference, held from 21 to 25 September 2026 in Sofia, have officially submitted a joint position paper and declaration to the European Commission. In the document, leading European experts raise the alarm over serious monitoring gaps concerning species such as rodents, shrews, moles, dormice, and hedgehogs, which play a crucial role in ecosystem functioning and the survival of numerous protected predators.
The Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBER-BAS) organized the conference together with the Habitat Foundation, hosted by the Faculty of Biology at Sofia University. The most captivating part of the program was the presentation of results from the breeding and release of the Romanian hamster (Mesocricetus newtoni) – a species endemic to the world, found only in a small part of Bulgaria and Romania. Conference participants also visited the surroundings of Belmeken Peak in Rila National Park, home to the highest-altitude colony of the European ground squirrel (Spermophilus citellus) in the world.
The conference took place within the framework of the project “Securing the recovery of the endangered Saker Falcon in Bulgaria and Southern Romania” (LIFE20 NAT/BG/001162), which receives financial support from the European Union’s LIFE Programme.
The booklet containing the program and abstracts of the conference is available at this link.
Photos: Dimitar Gradinarov (BSPB), Yordan Koshev (IBER-BAS), Elitsa Vuchkova (DNP Rila), SMCC 2026 and etc.
