Shreiber’s bent-winged bat

The Shreiber’s bent-winged bat is distributed in Morocco and Southern Europe (north to Central France, Switzerland, Austria and Czechoslovakia), the Caucasus and Iran, most of China and Japan, most of the Indomalay region, New Guinea, Solomon Islands. islands, Australia, Africa (excluding the Sahara region), Madagascar, Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville Island. In Bulgaria the species is frequent and numerous inhabitant of the caves in the lower parts of the country. It is rarely found in the mountains – probably during seasonal migrations. It can be found in the protected areas Kresna-Ilindentsi and Pirin.

The Shreiber’s bent-winged bat is a medium-sized bat with a very short snout and a strongly convex and rounded forehead. The fur is short. The color of the back is from grey-brown to ash grey, and the lower side – lighter grey. Muzzle, ears and membranes – grey-brown. Ears – short, do not exceed the height of the head. The wings are long and narrow. The Shreiber’s bent-winged bats inhabit karst areas. They feed often, away from shelters. The main part of the food are moths, various biplanes and beetles. In Bulgaria they are entirely connected with the caves. Highly colonial species. Sometimes it forms numerous colonies of the order of several tens of thousands of specimens, which form dense clusters along the arches of the caves. The colonies are usually mixed with other cave species. One of the largest winter colonies is known in Bulgaria, reaching 80 000 specimens. In Bulgaria they usually breed in the autumn (sometimes in the spring) in the “summer” caves. During this period, the bats are scattered in groups of 2 to 10-15 individuals throughout the cave. Females give birth to single offspring in late June, early July.

Unfavorable-inadequate.

The Shreiber’s bent-winged 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 Shreiber’s bent-winged bat is included in the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species 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”.