Savi's pipistrelle

Description

The Savi's pipistrelle achieves a snout-vent length of 4.0 to 5.4 cm with a tail length of 3.1 to 4.3 cm and a wingspan of 22 cm. Its weight is 5 to 10 g. This makes it one of the smaller bat species in Europe. Its fur is relatively long and yellowish to dark brown on the upperparts with a black-brown hair base and shiny hair tips. The underparts are whitish-yellow to greyish-white, clearly distinguishing them from the upperparts. The ears and snout are almost black, the wings dark brown. The young, which are able to fly, are somewhat darker than the adults and still have hardly any or no light fur tips.

Compared to the European pipistrelles (Pipistrellus), the ears are broader and rounder, they have four ear folds. The ear length is 10 to 15 mm. The tragus is short and widens slightly towards the top, it has two opposing teeth at the base and the rounded tip is turned inwards. The forearm has a length of 30.0 to 36.5 mm. The arm patagium attaches to the toe root. The last two caudal vertebrae are free at 3 to 5 mm in length.

Habitat

Foraging usually takes place at higher altitudes over open woodland and over pasture and wetland areas. However, they also live in inhabited areas and, especially in southern Europe, in cities, where they catch insects around lighting systems, among other places. They also hunt near rock faces or above treetops.

They find their roosts and resting places in rock crevices, but also in cracks in buildings or under tree bark. Very rarely they are found in underground habitats and caves.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpenfledermaus). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 13 August 2021