Northern bat

Description

The northern bat is a medium-sized bat species. 

As in the serotine bat, the long and silky upper fur is dark to blackish brown at the base, but the tips of the hairs in adult northern bats are coloured ochre to leathery or golden from the crown to the base of the tail, contrasting with the ground colour. This effect occurs especially in the shoulder area towards the middle of the back. The nape of the neck is darker and the underpart is very light yellow-brown in colour, the transition from the dark upperpart to the light underpart being very sharply defined, especially on the sides of the neck. The snout, the cheeks, the ears and the patagium are black. The young are darker coloured and have no golden, but at most silvery fur tips, the belly is grey in them.

The ears are small compared to other bats and reach a length of 11.5 to 17.3 mm. Compared to the serotine bat, however, they are proportionally larger.

The wings are medium in width and length with a rounded wing tip, the fifth finger being almost 10 mm longer than the forearm. The tip of the tail is exposed at 3 to 4 mm with the last caudal vertebra.

In Europe, the northern bat is comparatively easy to distinguish from other bat species. Compared to the closely related serotine bat (Eptesicus serotinus), it is clearly smaller. It differs from other similar species, especially the leather-winged bat (Vespertilio murinus) and the Savi's pipistrelle (Hypsugo savii), mainly by the colour of its fur as well as features of the skeleton, especially the skull, and the shape of the penis bone.

Habitat

Northern bats prefer loose scrub and coniferous forests at altitudes of 200 to over 2,000 m, especially in Europe. They are also bound to more humid habitats and the vicinity of water bodies. In addition, they are bound to human settlements, as especially the nursery roosts are very often found in roofs of heated houses. Although most winter habitat finds are made in remote caves and cellars, it can be assumed that a large proportion of bats may hibernate in inaccessible places in wall coverings and roofs.

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordfledermaus). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 09 August 2021