Vig Károly: Zoological Research in Western Hungary. A history (Szombathely, 2003)

Phylum Vertebrata 229 made for them every evening. Much harm to the poultry is also done by foxes and polecats. Beech martens are sometimes found in the larger game areas. Squirrels, known in Eörségh dialect as mukuts, are everywhere. Otters can seldom be found in the Kerka.' KÁLMÁN VAKARCS (1939) listed the mammals of the Vendvidék. JÓZSEF CSABA (1937c) researched and described in detail the mammals of Nagycsákány (Csákánydoroszló), having collected 'smaller mammals' for the Hungarian Natural History Museum since 1925. He observed 34 species of mammal of a period of more than ten years, noting already that several species were disappearing from the district as their habitats contracted. He also published shorter communications on mammals and their special occurrence locations (CSABA 1959e) or unusual appearances of them (CSABA 1934a). He collected popular animal and plant names in and around his home village, including those of mammals, of course (CSABA 1935, 1936a and 1941). In addition, he wrote on occurrences of the Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) round Kőszeg (CSABA 1965 and 1972). Among the appearances of chamois in Vas County is the one shot by LAJOS BARABÁS at Ludad (Gyöngyösfalu) in 1931, whose horns and skull still belong to the Natural History Department of the Savaria Museum in Szombathely (Inventory No. 85.18.1). RÓBERT DANKOVICS examined the small-mammal fauna of the district under the research programme Natural History of the Őrség.

123 His summary 123 Az Őrség Természeti Képe. 124 CHERNÉL, 1.1886. Hódok a Csallóközben (В. F. 1905. Az utolsó hód Magyarországon (The last be; report gives details of 31 species. An interesting item is the occurrence of the racoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), which is probably from a feral population (DANKOVICS 1995b). Early in June 1990, the corpse of a beaver was found in Szentpéterfa, at a sluice on the River Pinka. (Three bullets from a small rifle were recovered from its body during preparation.) The animal must have escaped from a breeding farm in Austria, as the corpse was of a Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis), not a European one (C. fiber). Beavers have been extinct in Hungary for many years. According to ISTVÁN CHERNÉL, he shot the last in the Csallóköz in 1858.

124 In the winter of 1990, marks of gnawing by a beaver were found by the River Rába outside Alsószölnök. These suggested that the beaver had dwelt there for some time. It is to be hoped that if beavers resettle, they will not meet the fate of the one found at Szentpéterfa (DANKOVICS 1991; SZINETÁR and GYURÁCZ 1993). Only sporadic references to the bat fauna of the Őrség and adjacent areas are known from earlier periods. The first was by LAJOS MÉHELY (1900), who in his monograph, gave Szentgotthárd as a 19th-century location for Leislers bat (Nyctalus leisleri). According to KURT BAUER and H. STEINER (1960), a ringed example of the greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) from across the border was found at Gasztony. The same species was collected at Őriszentpéter and Szentgotthárd by GYÖRGY TOPÁL (MURAI 1976). A barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellus) ringed by Austrian researchers rs in the Csallóköz). Vadászlap 7:257; WACHSMANN, in Hungary). Állattani Közlemények 4:235-6.