Mediterranean horseshoe bat

The species is found from the Caucasus to Israel and Southern Europe, Turkmenistan, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and probably Egypt. In Bulgaria it is an ordinary inhabitant of the karst regions. At the highest altitude it is registered in Pirin (1 700 m above sea level), but it is usually found up to 1 000 m above sea level.

The Mediterranean horseshoe bat is a medium-sized horseshoe bat. The base of the hair is light grey. The color of the dorsal side is grey-brown, and the abdominal side is whitish-yellow, the border between the abdominal and dorsal side is not sharp. Nasal growths and lips – light brown, ears and membranes – light grey. The wings are broad. The second phalanx of the 4th finger is more than twice the length of the first. The species inhabits wooded karst areas near water. It feeds on small insects. Much more social than Greater and Lesser horseshoe bat. Sometimes it forms independent colonies in the caves of 50-300 individuals. It often coexists with other cave bat species. In winter it is found in mixed colonies, most often with Blasius’s horseshoe bat and Mehely’s horseshoe bat and less often with the Greater horseshoe bat. The Mediterranean horseshoe bat usually settle in the warmest parts (10-13 °C) of the caves. The breeding colonies, registered in Bulgaria, are usually numbering from a few dozen to about 2 000 individuals. The female gives birth to one offspring at the end of June – beginning of July.

Favorable.

The Mediterranean horseshoe bat is strictly protected species included in Annexes 2 and 3 of the Biodiversity Act (BDA); Annex II of the Bern Convention and Bonn Convention. The species is also included in Annex II and Annex IV of Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora (Habitats Directive). The bat is included in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species with category Near Threatened (NT) and is also part of the Red Data Book of Bulgaria (2015) with category “Vulnerable” (VU).

*Note: For the description of bats is used information from: Golemanski, V. & al. (eds). 2015. Red Data Book of the Republic of Bulgaria. Vol. 2. Animals. BAS & MoEW, Sofia [English ed.: ISBN 978-954-9746-22-8 (IBER – BAS), 978-954-8497-18-3 (MoEW)]; the website of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature); the website of the Federation of nature conservation NGOs “Green Balkans”.