Colors range from golden to dark brown above and usually pale brown below. Head and body length is 50-100 mm, tail length is 35-65 mm, and forearm length is 40-70 mm.
Range mass: 16 to 49 g.
Average mass: 27 g.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; bilateral symmetry
Average lifespan
Status: wild: 8.0 years.
Noctule bats are generally reside in forests but may forage in open areas and dwell in or near human habitation. Roosting sites include hollow trees, buildings, and caves.
Terrestrial Biomes: savanna or grassland ; forest ; rainforest ; scrub forest
Most widely distributed vespertilionid bat, common throughout Europe, most of temperate Asia to Japan and Burma, Oman, Viet Nam, Taiwan, Algeria, and possibly Mozambique and Singapore.
Biogeographic Regions: palearctic (Native ); oriental (Native )
Noctule bats generally have two main feeding flights of one or two hours duration, one in the early evening and the other ending just before sunrise. These bats eat winged ants, moths, and other insects, but are particulary fond of beetles. One instance of Nyctalus noctula capturing and eating house mice (Mus musculus) was observed.
Nyctalus noctula is migratory, traveling south-southwest to hibernate in caves and traveling a range of 80-750 km north-northeast to summer roosting sites. Not all individuals of a population migrate; some may overwinter in a hollow log or woodpecker hole. The longest journey recorded for Nyctalus noctula is 2,347 km.
Perception Channels: tactile ; chemical
Nyctalus noctula numbers are declining in Europe due to the elimination of their natural habitat, roosting trees, and insect prey.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Noctule bats have been infected in the laboratory with the plague-causing bacteria Yersinia (=Pasteurella), which points to some pathological implications for humans. They may also be a source of transmission for Borrelia recurrentis (a bacteria causing relapsing fever in humans), when humans are parasitized by ticks and body lice that have previously parasitized the bats.
One litter 1, 2, or (rarely) 3 young are born per female between May and June, although breeding occurs in both September and the spring. Two young are often born in areas where winters are more severe. Females have been found to mate in captivity when 3 months old; gestation is 50-70 days. Males mate during their second autumn, when 15 months old.
Range number of offspring: 1 to 3.
Range gestation period: 70 to 73 days.
Average weaning age: 60 days.
Key Reproductive Features: seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; viviparous
Average birth mass: 5.37 g.
Average number of offspring: 1.5.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
Sex: male: 455 days.
Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
Sex: female: 90 days.
The common noctule (Nyctalus noctula) is a species of insectivorous bat common throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
The common noctule's short fur is dark brown after moulting in June (males) or July/August (females); later it changes to red-brown before the onset of winter.[2] When awake, the body temperature is 36.5 °C (97.7 °F) but it decreases significantly during inactivity.[3] The body mass of adult common noctule is 25–30 g (0.88–1.1 oz) and they have a wingspan of 37–40 cm (15–16 in). The species forages with a rapid flying speed of 20–40 km/h (12–25 mph), sometimes up to 60 km/h (37 mph).[2] Because of temporally limited availability of insect prey, they have short daily activity periods before sunrise and after sunset of in total one hour or less and so must cope with up to twenty-three hours of fasting a day.[4]
Most parts of Europe, central Russia, across the Ural mountain, Caucasus, Turkey, the Near East, to southwestern parts of Siberia, the Himalayas, China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan. In Bulgaria, it is widespread and prefers deciduous forests.[5]
The common noctule is a migrating species with female bias, meaning that the females migrate but the males do not.[2][6][7] Mating season is in late summer in the wintering areas, and the females store the sperm in the uterus during hibernation until fertilization in spring.[2]
During early pregnancy in late April the females migrate north, as far as the Baltic region, to return to their natal maternity colonies and give birth after being pregnant for six to eight weeks. Each female rears one or two young per year.[2][8]
At birth the offspring is about a third of the maternal body weight, and after three to four weeks of suckling the young leave the roost almost fully developed – so the female rears the offspring to full size entirely on milk.[9]
Male common noctules do not migrate, but scatter along the females' migration routes to have higher chances of attracting the first females migrating back to the wintering regions. The reproductive cycle of male bats seems to correspond directly to season and food availability and spermatogenesis can be affected by body condition.[10] In early autumn, males develop large testes and aim to attract females with singing calls.[2] While in the harem roosts, males often do not enter torpor, but stay awake and mobile to defend the females from other males trying to copulate. Another reason for the avoidance of torpor during late summer and early autumn can be that spermatogenesis in bats can be delayed when resting metabolic rate is depressed, i.e. during torpor and hibernation.[11]
During the summer, male noctules are solitary or form small bachelor groups.
In Europe, the young are reared mainly in the northern parts of the distribution area, north of roughly 48°–49°N latitude.[12] With the exception of the main breeding area, several smaller and isolated breeding areas are known – recorded in Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Iberian Peninsula and Italy.[13]
Common noctule bats hibernate in winter, and sometimes congregate in hibernation colonies of up to 1000 individuals. In late summer the adult females migrate back southwards to the wintering areas, the young following later. Hibernation at these latitudes is thought to avoid too many days in winter below 0 °C (32 °F).[14] At the beginning of winter, usually in November (but this is strongly dependent on the ambient temperatures), N noctula start to hibernate in large groups with both sexes in the same roost. Tree holes are not warm enough so they use caves, objects like church steeples or blocks of flats in Eastern Europe,[15] where they are most common hibernating bat species in the cities. Sometimes summer territories and hibernating places are hundreds of kilometres apart.
When hunting, it often starts flying in early dusk, earlier than most European bats. It flies high above the forested areas that are its preferred habitat, reaching speeds of up to 50 km/h (31 mph).[16] Common noctule bats mainly eat beetles, moths and winged ants.
The common noctule uses two main calls for echolocation. The frequencies of the first are 26–47 kHz, have most energy at 27 kHz and an average duration of 11.5ms.[17] The frequency of the second call is 22–33 kHz, having most energy at 22 kHz and an average duration of 13.8ms.[17][18]
The common noctule prefers small to medium-sized woodlands, but also forages up to 20 km (12 mi) away from the woodland at night. When roosting by day, it usually seeks out tree holes or even bat boxes attached to tree trunks.
Generally, the common noctule lives in wooded habitats, but some populations thrive in towns such as Hamburg, Vienna, Brno and some other central European cities.
This species is protected in the European Union under the Habitats Directive. It is also listed in the Berne Convention and is specifically targeted by the UNEP-EUROBATS convention. Several national legislatures also protect this species and its habitats.
In order to highlight the importance of protecting this species at the European scale, it was selected as "Bat species of the Year" 2016 and 2017 by the pan-European NGO BatLife Europe.[19]
The common noctule (Nyctalus noctula) is a species of insectivorous bat common throughout Europe, Asia, and North Africa.
