The grey long-eared bat (''Plecotus austriacus'') is a fairly large

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

. It has distinctive

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

s, long and with a distinctive fold. It hunts above

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (se ...

, often by day, and mostly for

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

s. In captivity, it has also been recorded to eat small lizards. It is extremely similar to the more common

brown long-eared bat The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat (''Plecotus auritus'') is a small Eurasian insectivorous bat. It has distinctive ears, long and with a distinctive fold. It is extremely similar to the much rarer grey long-eared bat which was o ...

, and was only distinguished in the 1960s, but has a paler belly.

Biology and ecology

Its main foraging habitats are lowland

meadow A meadow ( ) is an open habitat, or field, vegetated by grasses, herbs, and other non- woody plants. Trees or shrubs may sparsely populate meadows, as long as these areas maintain an open character. Meadows may be naturally occurring or arti ...

s and

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

es. It locates its insect prey via echolocation. The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 18–45 kHz, have most energy at 28 kHz and have an average duration of 5.8 ms.

Distribution

Distributed throughout all of Europe, except for the Scandinavian Peninsula.

Conservation

It is currently listed as near-threatened by the IUCN. It has a large geographic range and it is considered relatively common. In most of the countries where it is found, it is protected from intentional harm by legislation. While Continental European distributions are not threatened, a 2013 study found this species was close to extinction in the United Kingdom. One possible reason for its decline in the UK is the loss of foraging habitat. It is currently a focus within the Back from the Brink conservation project which aims to increase foraging habitat around known roost sites. This species may also be threatened by

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

Southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countries and regions: Alba ...

. One researcher noted, "long-lived, slow-reproducing species with smaller population sizes are not likely to be able to adapt to future climate change fast enough through the spread of new mutations arising in the population." In the future, it may be necessary for humans to relocate bats to suitable areas as climate changes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q220958 Bats of Europe Fauna of Madeira Mammals of Turkey Plecotus Mammals described in 1829 Mammals of Cape Verde Taxa named by Johann Baptist Fischer