**6. Conclusion**

It is safe to conclude that owls prey on bats rarely and opportunistically, but also that bat aggregations could be a locally important food source for some species and individual owls during certain periods. Also, the decrease in the main prey (rodent) abundance can lead owls to expand their diet and include bats.

Further work is needed to evaluate the possible effects of owl predation on bat populations, and to determine the ecological and environmental dynamics between owl species and their main prey species. Owl predation on bats deserves future research also because on one hand, it might contribute to our limited knowledge on bats biodiversity and distribution, while on the other hand, it can sometimes represent an additional risk for small populations of endangered bats.
