10 July 2024

Help to identify a small bat in Albania

On a recent trip to Albania in May 2024 we found a small bat dead on the ground under a highway bridge – Derven north of Tirane. I would appreciate any suggestions about which species it was. A selected number of pictures show both the nose, tail, ear angles, toes as well as back and belly. Thankyou in advance.

I have added an extra picture which illustrates it’s size compared to a finger (we didn’t have any measuring tools with us at the time). I think from the toes, tail and face that it should be a Horseshoe species!?

We found the T2 Thermal Imaging for Iphone very useful in the field as it allowed the group to have nice views of night active animals and even Little Owl and a Nightjar in a field. Species from one week included: Golden Jackal (seen with T2), Brown Hare, Badger, families of Chamois seen 3 days, Brown Bear – initially spotted by the T2 on a daytime scanning of a mountain in Valbone, a Red Fox being shot at by an angry mountain farmer! – and then the small bat in question.

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MortenMH

Birdwatcher as well as mammalwatcher

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2 Comments

  • 11 July 2024
    Munkhnast

    Hi MortenMH,

    Greetings from Mongolia. I am bat biologist and it looks Myotis (genus) definitely and hard to tell which species is it due to diverse and cryptics of the second largest genus of the mammals. Anyway do you have any measurement? I can look at literatures in order to validate or best gues

    1
  • 14 July 2024
    JimBo

    On these images, it is easier to proceed first by elimination after selecting the species present in Albania.
    It is not a Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus sp.) because these species have practically no tail and practically no uro-patagium (membrane between the hind legs and the tail).
    The ears are not those of a long-eared Bat (Plecotus sp.)
    It is not a Pipistrelle Bat nor a Noctule Bat because of the shape of the tragus (short, large and rounded).
    Because of the shape of the ears, it is probably a Myotis.
    The coloring does not correspond to the large Myotis (myotis, blythii-oxygnathus) nor to the Geoffroy’s Bat (emarginatus).
    It is not a Myotis from the Natterrer group (nattereri, crypticus) because the tragus is not long enough (regarding the length of the ear) and not pointed enough.
    The only groups that corresponds are the “big-footed” (daubentonii, capaccinii) group and the “whiskers” group (alcathoe, mystacinus, brandtii) but it is impossible in these images to go further.
    Because of the strong contrast between the almost black back and the almost white belly, I lean towards the “mustache” group but without certainty.

    3

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