Description ²

The short fur is dark brown after molting in June (males) or July/August (females), later it changes to red-brown before the onset of winter . When awake, the body temperature is 36.5°C but decreases significantly during inactivity of the animal . The body mass of adult N. noctula is 25-30 g and they have a wingspan of 37-40 cm. The species forages with a rapid flying speed of 20-40 km/h, sometimes up to 60 km/h . Because of temporally limited availability of insect prey, they have short daily activity periods before sunrise and after sunset of in total 1 h or less and must cope with up to 23 h of fasting a day .

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Aleksandar, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Aleksandar
2. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_noctule

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• AMNH Bats of the World
• Animal Diversity Web
• ASM Mammal Diversity Database
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• iNaturalist Mammal Working Group
• NBN Atlas
• VertNet

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