Vesper bats | Vespertilionidae

Gladneuzen | Vespertiliónidos

By far the largest and least specialised family of bats: a smooth face with no noseleaf, a tragus in the ear, and a tail wholly enclosed in the tail membrane, whose tip is curled forward in the hunt into a scoop in which an insect is caught. The call goes out through the open mouth and consists of short pulses sweeping from high to low. Wing shape follows the manner of hunting: broad and rounded in species that pick prey off a surface among leaves and over water, long and narrow in those that fly high in open air. Mating takes place in autumn, but the sperm is stored over winter in the female's body and fertilisation follows only in spring, when the insects begin to appear. One young is born, rarely two. With forty-two species this is the largest mammal family in the area, and several of them can be separated in the field only by their calls.