Mouse-eared bat - Grousst Mausouer
Myotis myotis
Summary 4
The greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) is an European species of bat in the family Vespertilionidae.
Behaviour 5
Like its relatives it eats various arthropods; however, unlike many bats it does not capture prey by echolocation in flight but instead gleans it from the ground, locating the prey passively – listening for the noises produced by creatures such as carabid beetles, centipedes and spiders. Thus, it uses echolocation only for spatial orientation, even if it emits ultrasound calls when approaching prey.
In summer, nursery roosts in northern Europe are located almost exclusively in large attics of buildings (e.g. churches), while in southern Europe they are located in caves. Also solitary males can roost there, although in some countries (Germany, western Poland) there are regular cases of roosting in bird and bat boxes. Greater mouse-eared bats spend winter exclusively in underground roosts, like caves, mines, forts, tunnels and large cellars.
The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 22 and 86 kHz, have most energy at 37 kHz and have an average duration of 6.0 ms.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Juan Cruzado Cortés, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Juan Cruzado Cortés
- (c) Marcel Holyoak, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-ND), https://www.flickr.com/photos/maholyoak/5846422458/
- (c) C. Robiller / Naturlichter.de, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gro%C3%9Fes_Mausohr.jpg
- Adapted by Paul Braun from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myotis_myotis
- (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_mouse-eared_bat
