Greater Noctule bat

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Greater Noctule bat

Nyctalus lasiopterus showing its impressive teeth (taken from Popa-Lisseanu et al 2007).

Conservation status

Near Threatened

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Chiroptera
Family:	Vespertilionidae
Genus:	Nyctalus
Species:	N. lasiopterus

Binomial name

Nyctalus lasiopterus
(Schreber, 1780)

The Greater Noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus), or Greater Noctule, is a rare and little known mammal. Found in Europe, West Asia, and North Africa, it has the distinction of being the largest bat in Europe, with a wingspan of up to 46 centimetres. Studies suggest that these aerial-hawking bats feed on insects and passerine birds, which they are believed to catch and eat on the wing. In Spain at least, Greater Noctules hibernate from December to February.

Predation on birds, especially catching them in the air rather than when roosting, is very rare among bats. In fact hunting birds on the wing has only been reported for the Greater Noctule, in studies in both Italy and Spain. The studies in Spain indicated that during the nocturnal migration of birds over the Mediterranean from March-May and August-November, as much of 70% of Greater Noctule droppings contained the remains of birds. Studies of stable isotopes in Greater Noctule blood corroborate this noturnal predation on migratory passerines hypothesis. The greater noctule is large, has echolocation calls and wings evolved for open-air hunting, and echolocation frequencies above the hearing range of birds, indicating that it is well adapted or exapted for hunting passerines in the air at night.

[edit] References

Dondini, G., Vergari, S. 2000 Carnivory in the greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus) in Italy. Journal of Zoology 251: 233-236.

Ibáñez, C., Juste, J., García-Mudarra, J. L., Agirre-Mendi, P. T. 2001. Bat predation on nocturnally migrating birds. PNAS 98:9700-9702. full article. discussion.

Popa-Lisseanu, A. G., Delgado-Huertas, A., Forero, M. G., Rodriguez, A., Arlettaz, R. & Ibanez, C. 2007. Bats' conquest of a formidable foraging niche: the myriads of nocturnally migrating songbirds. PLoS ONE 2(2): e205. full article.