Greater Horseshoe Bat

Taxobox
name = Greater Horseshoe Bat
status = LR/nt | status_system = IUCN2.3
status_ref = [IUCN2006|assessors=Chiroptera Specialist Group|year=2000|id=19517|title=Rhinolophus ferrumequinum|downloaded=11 May 2006 Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened]

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image_width = 200px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Chiroptera
familia = Rhinolophidae
genus = "Rhinolophus"
species = "R. ferrumequinum"
binomial = "Rhinolophus ferrumequinum"
binomial_authority = (Schreber, 1774)

The Greater Horseshoe Bat "Rhinolophus ferrumequinum" is a European bat of the Rhinolophus genus. It is the largest of the European Horseshoe Bats and is thus easily distinguished from other species. The species is sedentary, travelling between 20 and 30 kilometers between the winter and summer roosts, with the longest recorded movement being 180 km. The species is notable as having the oldest recorded age for any european bat, with a bat living for over 30 years.

Physical Description

The Greater Horseshoe bat is on average between 57 and 71mm long, with a 35-43mm tail and a 350-400mm wingspan. The fur of the species is soft and fluffy, with the base of hairs being light grey, the dorsal side hair grey brown and the ventral side grey-white, with juvenile bats having more of an ash-grey tint to their fur. Wing membranes and ears are light grey-brown.

Habitat

The Greater Horseshoe Bat lives in warmer regions of areas of open trees and scrub, near areas of standing water, areas of limestone and human settlement. The species is mainly house-dwelling in the north and cave-dwelling in the south. In the mountains nests are normally at below 800 meters above sea level.

Mating

Females normally produce their young when around 4 years old in England and 3 years old in the south of europe, with males becoing mature around the end of their second year. Mating season is from autumn to spring, with nurseries of up to 200 females clustered together with their young. Young Greater Horseshoe Bats open their eyes at about 4 days, are able to fly after three weeks and become independent at 7-8 weeks. The false nipples of female bats, which newborn bats cling to after birth, are not fully developed until after the first birth.

Hunting

The Greater Horseshoe Bat leaves its roost at dusk, and its flying is made up of slow, fluttering travel with short glides, normally between 0.3 and 6 meters above the ground, with little hunting during wet and windy weather. It hunts in terrain with poor tree cover such as hillsides, cliff faces and in gardens, locating insects from its resting place and then intercepting them. The species has the ability to pick food up off the ground while still in flight, and indeed drinks during low-level flight or while hovering. The feeding range of colonies in England is between 8 and 16 kilometers.

tatus in Britain

The species is rare in Britain, confined to just a small number of sites. Its breeding sites include Brockley Hall Stables near Bristol, Iford Manor near Bath, and Littledean Hall in the Forest of Dean. Its winter hibernation sites include Banwell Caves and Compton Martin Ochre Mine in the Mendip Hills, Chilmark Quarries in Wiltshire, and Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines near Bath. In Dorset, the species roosts at Bryanston, Creech Grange and in Belle Vue Quarry. The species also occurs at Berry Head in Devon.

The species has disappeared from over half of its former range within the United Kingdom, with about 1% of the population surviving. Like all horseshoe bats it is sensitive to disturbance, and is threatened by the use of insecticides and the elimination of beetles by the changing agricultural practices.

Echolocation

The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 69–83 kHz, have most energy at 81 kHz and have an average duration of 37.4 ms. [Parsons, S. and Jones, G. (2000) 'Acoustic identification of twelve species of echolocating bat by discriminant function analysis and artificial neural networks.' "J Exp Biol"., 203: 2641–2656.] [Obrist, M.K., Boesch, R. and Flückiger, P.F. (2004) 'Variability in echolocation call design of 26 Swiss bat species: Consequences, limits and options for automated field identification with a synergic pattern recognition approach.' "Mammalia"., 68 (4): 307–32.]

References

*cite book|last=Schober|first=Wilfried|coauthors=Eckard Grimmberger|title=A Guide to Bats of Britain and Europe|editor=Dr. Robert E. Stebbings|publisher=Hamlyn Publishing Group|location=UK|date=1989|edition=1st|isbn=0-600-56424-x|language=English

External links

* [http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/bats/britishbats/batpages/greaterhorseshoe.htm Greater Horseshoe Bat]