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Common long-eared bat - PLECOTUS AURITUS
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Bat": "Bat" comes from Old Norse "ledhrblaka," "leather flapper." It became "bakka" and then "bat."
Description: Of small size, this delicate bat has a moderately long muzzle bearing a pair of protuberances above the nose; extremely long ears joined across the forehead with a long, simple, narrowly rounded tragus (ear); tail tip free beyond tail membrane. Fur long, grizzled; brownish in color except gray-white beneath. Average head and body length 1.8 in, forearm 1.6 in; weight 0.2-0.5 oz.
Location: From England eastward as far as Japan.
Habitat: Forests and woodlands.
Behavior: This possibly migratory species is very common in the temperate parts of the Palearctic Region, and often roosts in colonies of 50-100 in its summer daytime retreats, such as under roofs or in hollow trees. It is generally more solitary in winter while hibernating in caves. Foraging at dusk and through the night, the long-eared bat eats moths and beetles caught in flight, and captures other insects, spiders, and wood lice by hovering in trees and climbing on branches or walls.
Reproduction: Long-eared bats breed in autumn and spring. Pregnant females form nursery colonies of 100 or more in early summer, and the single young or twins are born in June-July. Four similar species of Plecotus inhabit North America.
Go to the Bats Page to get a general discussion of this flying mammal.
Go to the Bats Index to study the other bats included in America Zoo.
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