Atlas der Säugetiere Nordrhein-Westfalens

Graues Langohr

86 entries

Grey long-eared bat

Rote Liste NRW: 1 Vom Aussterben bedroht

  entry

Plecotus austriacus

Adult Grey Long-eared bats can be distinguished from the Brown Long-eared Bat, not just by the colour of their pelage, but also the short length of the thumb and the claw. Hibernating individuals of the species, whose long ears are then hidden under the wings, can be recognized by their dark and barely raised mouths. Grey Long-eared bats favour climatically milder regions, and are thus missing in the North of Germany. In contrast, in winter the hibernating animals often dwell in unprotected, cold and drafty places of the roost. In their occurrence, Grey Long-eared Bats are apparently tied more than other bat species to human habitations, especially villages surrounded by good hunting habitat.
Records of the Grey Long-eared Bat in NRW are few, which certainly results from it much lower density than that of the Brown Long-eared Bat. The species is somewhat more common in Eastern Westphalia and perhaps also in the Lower Rhenian Bay. In the Münsterland and large parts of the North Rhine-Westphalian hill country, the species seems to be absent.

Author

Henning Vierhaus

Citation

Vierhaus H (2025): Graues_Langohr (Plecotus_austriacus).In: AG Säugetierkunde NRW — Online-Atlas of the mammals of North Rhine-Westphalia. Downloaded from saeugeratlas-nrw.lwl.org on 2025/04/01