Mammals of the WorldBrown Long-eared Bat
Plecotus auritus
- Order
- Chiroptera
- Family
- Vespertilionidae
- Genus
- Plecotus
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- Ireland|United Kingdom|Portugal|Spain|France|Belgium|Netherlands|Luxembourg|Germany|Denmark|Norway|Sweden|Finland|Switzerland|Liechtenstein|Italy|Austria|Czech Republic|Poland|Hungary|Slovakia|Slovenia|Croatia|Bosnia and Herzegovina|Serbia|Kosovo|Montenegro|Albania|North Macedonia|Greece|Bulgaria|Romania|Moldova|Ukraine|Belarus|Lithuania|Latvia|Estonia|Russia|Kazakhstan?|Georgia|Armenia|Azerbaijan|Turkey|Iran
- Realm
- Palearctic
Other names: Brown Big-eared Bat|Common Long-eared Bat
About this species
- Size
- Body 4.5–4.8cm; tail 4.1–4.6cm; forearm 4–4.2cm; ears 3.3–3.9cm
- Diet
- Mostly moths; also earwigs, flies and beetles gleaned from leaves and bark
- Habitat
- Woodland; roosts in buildings, tree holes, bat boxes and caves
The brown long-eared bat is a small insectivorous bat with distinctive long ears with a fold in them, 3.3 to 3.9cm long. The body is 4.5 to 4.8cm, the tail 4.1 to 4.6cm and the forearm 4 to 4.2cm. It is extremely similar to the much rarer grey long-eared bat, which was only validated as a separate species in the 1960s (Wikipedia, general species account).
It hunts above woodland, often by day, mostly for moths, gleaning insects from leaves and bark. It emerges from roosts only in the dark, about an hour after sunset. Its prey is probably detected by sight and sound rather than echolocation. The account opened describes it as a Eurasian species found throughout Europe, so it is flagged for checking as the Nepal record. Nationally Data Deficient (Nepal National Red List 2011).
Description: Wildlife of Nepal guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)