Sofia hosted the first European Small Mammal Conservation Conference (SMCC 2026)

At the end of September, Sofia hosted the first edition of the European Small Mammal Conservation Conference (SMCC 2026). The main organizers of the event were The Habitat Foundation (the Netherlands) and the Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBER-BAS). The conference, held at the Faculty of Biology of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, was part of the “Life for Falcons” project, coordinated by BSPB.

More than 110 scientists from almost all over Europe presented the results of their work and discussed the conservation of the European hamster, European ground squirrel, Romanian hamster, forest dormouse and other small mammals. The presentation by Dr. Maria Kachamakova, entitled “Captive breeding of Romanian hamsters (Mesocricetus newtoni)”, attracted considerable interest.

Conference participants drafted a joint declaration addressed to the European Commission. In the document, leading European experts raise the alarm over serious gaps in the monitoring of species such as rodents, shrews, moles, dormice and hedgehogs, which play a key role in the functioning of ecosystems and the survival of a number of protected predators.

Analysis of the European Red List shows that population trend data are missing for nearly half of the assessed small mammals, resulting in declines going undetected. The scientists therefore propose the establishment of a European Small Mammal Observatory (ESMO) – a network that would bring together research centres, museum collections and biodiversity databases across Europe.

The conference programme and book of abstracts are available here.

Photos: Dimitar Gradinarov (BSPB), Dr. Yordan Koshev (IBER-BAS)