Grey Long-eared Bat | |
---|---|
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Chiroptera |
Family: | Vespertilionidae |
Genus: | Plecotus |
Species: | P. austriacus |
Binomial name | |
Plecotus austriacus (Fischer, 1829) |
|
Range of P.austriacus |
The grey long-eared bat (Plecotus austriacus) is a fairly large European bat. It has distinctive ears, long and with a distinctive fold. It hunts above woodland, often by day, and mostly for moths. It is extremely similar to the more common brown long-eared bat, and was only distinguished in the 1960s, but has a paler belly.
While Continental European distributions are not threatened, a 2013 study found this species was close to extinction in the United Kingdom.
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.