Brandt's bat

Description

The Brandt's bat is a rather small bat species. Its snout-vent length is only about four to five cm, its wingspan is between 19 and 20 cm, and its forearm length is between 32 and 39 mm. An adult Brandt's bat weights between 4 and 10 g. The rather long fur is dark brown.

The rather long coat has dark brown fur roots, on the upperpart it is golden brown. The belly is grey, sometimes with a yellowish tinge. The ears are moderately long, the tragus is narrow, pointed and about half as long as the ear. The ears, snout and patagium are light brown, the base of the inner auricle and the tragus usually lighter. 

Habitat

The Brandt's bat is strongly bound to forests and often to water bodies. It lives in mixed forest, deciduous forest and sometimes in coniferous forest. It is less common than the whiskered bat in the vicinity of human settlements. In summer it usually hibernates in tree hollows, but also in buildings and nest boxes, in winter in caves, tunnels, mines and cellars. 

Brandt's bat are crepuscular. Fast and agile in flight, they hunt small non-aquatic insects at low altitudes near water bodies.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Große_Bartfledermaus). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 17 August 2021