Giant noctule bat
| Giant noctule bat | ||||||||||||
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Giant Noctule Swift ( Nyctalus lasiopterus ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nyctalus lasiopterus | ||||||||||||
| ( Schreber , 1780) |
The Giant Noctule Bat ( Nyctalus lasiopterus ) is the largest European bat and belongs to the smooth-nosed family (Vespertilionidae). Giant noctule swifts hunt regularly migrating small birds, especially in autumn, and these are presumably captured in the open air.
description
The fur of the animals is red-brown and comparatively long, almost like a mane on the neck; the underside is medium to yellow-brown. On the underside of the wing, the hair extends far along the forearm and onto the adjacent flight membrane. The ears are wider and, with a length of 21 to 26 millimeters, significantly larger than those of the other Nyctalus species; they have a mushroom-shaped tragus . Giant noctule swifts have a head-to-trunk length of around 80 to 104 millimeters. Together with the tail of 55 to 65 millimeters in length, the animals are almost as long as a handspan. The narrow wings allow a fast, agile flight. The wingspan is 40 to 47 centimeters, the weight 41 to 76 grams.
The animals emit orientation calls with a frequency of 14 to 20 kHz. This is slightly lower than the noctule bat (17 to 25 kHz) and significantly lower than the noctule bat (22 to 27 kHz). Two- syllable calls that sound like "Plip-Plop" in the bat detector are particularly characteristic , since the first tone has a frequency of 17 kHz, the second one between 14 and 15 kHz.
Distribution and occurrence
.JPG)
The Giant Noctule Swift is widespread in southern and eastern Europe, in North Africa as well as in the Middle East and Central Asia, but it is found everywhere only as islands and in very low density. The European area extends from the Iberian Peninsula. via France, Italy, the Balkan countries to Greece and Turkey. The northern border of the distribution runs through the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Evidence from Switzerland, Germany and Poland is likely to be random visitors or roaming animals. In Eastern Europe the species goes almost to 55 ° north latitude and eastward to the Urals. In North Africa it has been proven from Morocco and Libya , information from Algeria requires confirmation. In Asia the distribution area extends to Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan and the north of Iran .
Earlier information on occurrences in China and Japan refer to Nyctalus aviator , which was long considered a subspecies of the great noctule bat. Molecular biological studies have shown, however, that it is a separate species, which is very probably not closely related to Nyctalus lasiopterus .
The giant noctule bat lives in deciduous and mixed forests rich in old wood from sea level up to almost 1,400 m. From Eastern Europe, observations from pure coniferous forests have also been described, which are divided by meadows and open stream valleys.
Giant noctule swifts usually rest in tree hollows during the day, sometimes in artificial caves or rock crevices. Observations in buildings are a rare exception. Caves or tunnels are sought out for hibernation .
In areas where old forests have become rare or are missing, the species has moved to parks with old trees, such as Seville in southern Spain. There is a colony in Maria Luisa Park, where the animals inhabit caves in pagoda trees , gleditschia and plane trees . Some of the nurseries are also located under the drooping leaves of petticoat palms ( Washingtonia filifera ). The northern populations migrate southward in autumn. They were also found on Alpine passes at an altitude of just under 2,000 meters.
nutrition
The giant noctule bat is considered an opportunist in terms of its food spectrum. The food is based on a wide variety of large insects such as moths, beetles, gnats and netwings. These form the only food between mid-May and August. In addition to insects, songbirds are regularly eaten, especially when birds migrate in early autumn. Their share of weight in the prey is particularly high where the small bird migration is concentrated. Most of them are inexperienced (this year) birds that are making the migration route for the first time. Birds are also eaten during the spring migration, but their number is well below the peaks of the autumn migration.
The birds are presumably captured and eaten in flight, but no information is yet available on hunting behavior (height, direction of impact, gripping technique). Robins , chiffchaff , warblers and redstart have been identified as prey . Apart from the deviating daily rhythm, there are striking parallels in the use of this resource to Eleanor's falcon and slate falcon , which also hunt migrating small birds near the sea.
The bones and feathers of the eaten birds are regularly found in the droppings. Examinations of faeces from Tuscany (Pian di Novello protected area) between 1995 and 1997 also led to specific indications of birds as prey for the first time, after there had been earlier assumptions about it. However, some scientists doubted the correctness of the conclusions. The bats could have mistaken the moulting feathers of small birds floating in the air for slow-flying insects and mistakenly ate them. The clear evidence of targeted bird hunting was achieved in a larger study on two populations in Seville and in the Coto de Doñana (southern Spain), in which blood samples from bats were compared with tissue samples from insects and birds. Insect tissue has a different ratio of carbon - and nitrogen isotopes than avian tissues. Bats that have eaten birds can therefore be distinguished from conspecifics that have only eaten insects on the basis of characteristic isotope concentrations.
Reproduction
The females become sexually mature at four months. As with many other European bat species, mating occurs between September and early October. The colonies usually consist of 10 to 20 females; in exceptional cases, significantly larger nurseries were found (max. 66 animals). Between late May and early July, the females give birth to two young. The birth weight is 5 to 7 grams. After 40 days the young are able to fly.
Surname
The Giant Noctule was scientifically named Vespertilio lasiopterus in 1780 by Johann Christian von Schreber and in German as "the bat with hairy feathers" (lasius = shaggy, pterus = winged). The description appeared in the extensive mammalian work by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann "Geographical Description of Humans and Four-Footed Animals" (Vol. 2: 412) and was based on specimens from Tuscany. After the establishment of the genus Nyctalus by Thomas Edward Bowdich in 1825, the correct name is Nyctalus lasiopterus .
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on occurrences in Spain (PDF)
- ↑ Distribution map Europe (PDF)
- ↑ Information on occurrences in Italy ( Memento of May 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF)
- ↑ Occurrence in Bulgaria ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 5.3 MB)
- ↑ Evidence in Turkey (PDF)
- ↑ N. Yigit, S. Bulut, A. Karatas, P. Çam, F. Saygili: Contribution to the Distribution, Morphological Peculiarities, and Karyology of the Greater Noctule, Nyctalus lasiopterus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), in Southwestern Turkey . In: Turkish Journal of Zoology 32 (2008) 53-58 Further references from Turkey (PDF; 698 kB)
- ^ M. Anděra: Map of distribution of Nyctalus lasiopterus in Czech republic . BioLib, 2008 evidence in the Czech Republic
- ↑ M. Uhrin, P. Kanuch, P. Benda, E. Hapl, HDJ Verbeek, A. Kristin, J. Kristofik, P. Masan, M. Andrea: On the Greater noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus) in central Slovakia . (PDF) Vespertilio 9-10, 2006, pp. 183-192
- ↑ P. Estok, P. Gombköto: Review of the Hungarian data of Nyctalus lasiopterus (SCHREBER, 1780) . In: Folia Historico-Naturalia Musei Matraensis 31, 2007: pp. 167-172. matramuzeum.hu evidence from Hungary (in English)
- ↑ Finds in Switzerland ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)
- ^ Ruprecht, AL (2008): Nyctalus lasiopterus (Schreber, 1780) - a new species in the fauna of Poland . In: Acta Theriologica 15, pp. 370-372. Proof from Poland
- ↑ P. Salgueiro, M. Ruedi, MM Coelho, JM Palmeirim: Genetic divergence and phylogeography in the genus Nyctalus (Mammalia, Chiroptera) . In: Genetica 130 (2), 2007, pp. 169-181
- ↑ AG Popa Lisseanu, A. Delgado-Huertas, MG Forero, A. Rodriguez, R. Arlettaz, C. Ibanez: Bats' conquest of a formidable foraging niche: the myriads of nocturnally migrating songbirds . In: PLoS ONE 2 (2), 2007, e205. (Engl.)
- ↑ G. Dondini, p Vergari: Bats: Bird-eaters or feather-eaters? A contribution to debate on the great noctule carnivory . ( Memento of the original from May 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 28 kB) In: Hystrix 15 (2), 2004, pp. 86-88
- ^ F. Bontadina, R. Arlettaz: A heap of feathers does not make a bat's diet . (PDF; 119 kB) In: Funct. Ecology 17, 2003, pp. 141-142.
- ↑ Bat eats migratory birds. Stable isotopes transfer the giant noctule bat . In: NZZ , February 14, 2007
Further literature
- C. Dietz, O. von Helversen, D. Nill: Handbook of the bats of Europe and Northwest Africa: biology, characteristics, endangerment . Kosmos-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 3-440-09693-9 .
- G. Dondini, S. Vergari: Carnivory in the greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus) in Italy . Journal of Zoology 251, 2000, pp. 233-236.
- I. Horacek, V. Hanak, J. Gaisler: Bats of the palearctic region: A taxonomic and biogeographic review . Proceedings of the VIIIth EBRS 1, 2000, pp. 11-157. Kraków. natur.cuni.cz ( Memento of July 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF).
- C. Ibáñez, A. Guillén, W. Bogdanowicz: Nyctalus lasiopterus (Schreber, 1780) - giant noctule bat . In: J. Niethammer, F. Krapp (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Säugetiere Europas , Volume 4 (2). Aula-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-89104-639-1 , pp. 695-716.
- C. Ibáñez, J. Juste, JL García-Mudarra, PT Agirre-Mendi: Bat predation on nocturnally migrating birds . In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98, 2001, pp. 9700-9702. pnas.or discussion (PDF; 119 kB)
- AG Popa-Lisseanu, F. Bontadina, O. Mora, C. Ibáñez: Highly structured fission-fusion societies in an aerial-hawking, carnivorous bat . In: Animal Behavior (in press), 2007, swild.ch (PDF; 309 kB)
