Rickett's big-footed bat (''Myotis pilosus'') is a species of vesper bat. It can be found in southern and eastern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Vietnam, and

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

. This species has often been called ''Myotis ricketti'', but the older ''M. pilosus'' has priority. The erroneous reporting of the type locality as being in Uruguay by Wilhelm Peters led to the dual naming. Rickett's big-footed bat is a widely distributed habitat specialist that is strictly dependent on water since its diet consists in large proportion of fish. Near Beijing, its diet was 60% pale chub (''

Zacco platypus The pale chub, (''Zacco platypus''), also known as pale bleak or fresh-water sprat, is a species of fish native to rivers and streams from northern China and Korea to northern Vietnam. They can grow up to but usually grow up to . Its diet consist ...

''), and 13% water beetles. It is threatened by water pollution. Rickett's big-footed bat was featured in the BBC video series

Wild China ''Wild China'' is a six-part nature documentary series on the natural history of China, co-produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and China Central Television (CCTV) and filmed in high-definition (HD). It was screened in the UK on BBC Two ...

References

Mammals of China. Smith, Xie, eds. 2013 Princeton Mouse-eared bats Mammals of China Mammals of Hong Kong Mammals of Laos Mammals of Vietnam Taxa named by Wilhelm Peters Mammals described in 1869 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Vespertilionidae-stub