Rickett's big-footed bat (''Myotis pilosus'') is a species of

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

. It can be found in southern and eastern China,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, and Laos. 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 Wilhelm Karl Hartwich (or Hartwig) Peters (22 April 1815 in Koldenbüttel – 20 April 1883) was a German naturalist and explorer. He was assistant to the anatomist Johannes Peter Müller and later became curator of the Berlin Zoological Muse ...

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''), and 13% water beetles. It is threatened by

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. ...

. Rickett's big-footed bat was featured in the BBC video series Wild China.

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