Biodiversity of Cyprus by NGO Protection of the Natural Heritage and the Biodiversity of Cyprus

The rich and rare biodiversity in Cyprus. The Cyprus biodiversity includes 1908 plants, 780 seashells, 250 fishes, more than 7.000 insects, 410 birds including migratory, 31 mammals, 9 snakes, 11 lizards,three amphibians, 120 land snails, fungi estimated 5-8 thousandand and three turtles.These numbers continually increase as a result of researc. Also see All about Cyprus. From George Konstantinou. Email - fanigeorge@hotmail.com - Το υλικό της ιστοσελίδας αποτελεί πνευματική ιδιοκτησία.

Showing posts with label Bats of Cyprus. Show all posts

Monday 17 August 2015

Natterer's bat - Myotis nattereri (Kuhl, 1817) - Cyprus

Λίστα των θηλαστικών της Κύπρου - List of mammals of Cyprus

Τα 31 θηλαστικά της Κύπρου (Web TV) - Του Γιώργου Κωνσταντίνου - Εφημερίδα πολίτης 20/5/2018

Οι 19 νυχτερίδες της Κύπρου (Web TV) - Του Γιώργου Κωνσταντίνου - Εφημερίδα πολίτης 4/2/2018

Natterer's bat (Myotis nattereri) is a European vespertilionid bat with pale wings. It has brown fur tending to greyish-white on its underside. It is found across most of the continent of Europe, parts of the Near East and North Africa. It feeds on insects and other invertebrates which it catches on the wing or pursues on the ground. In summer it roosts in deciduous and coniferous trees, buildings or bat boxes close to its feeding habitats. In winter it hibernates in caves, tunnels, mines or cellars, usually hiding in crevices. This bat was first described in 1817 by Heinrich Kuhl, who named it in honour of the Austrian naturalist Johann Natterer.
Natterer's bat is a medium-sized species and grows to a head and body length of 1.75 to 2 inches (44 to 51 mm) with a forearm (elbow to wrist) length of 1.75 inches (44 mm). It weighs between 5 and 9.5 grams (0.18 and 0.34 oz). The short, dense fur on the dorsal (upper) surface of head and body is greyish-brown while the ventral (under) surface is whitish-grey. The ears and the wing membranes are smoky grey. This bat can be distinguished from other similar species by the fact that the free edge of the interfemoral membrane between the hind limbs is wrinkled and fringed with stiff, curved hairs and the calcar, a spur of cartilage that supports the membrane, is shaped like a "S"

Natterer's bat has a western Palaearctic distribution and is native to most of Europe, parts of the Middle East and parts of northern Africa. Its range extends from southern Sweden, Finland and western Russia in the north to Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal to the west. It extends eastwards to Ukraine, western and south-western Asia Minor, the Levant, the Caucasus region, the Kopet Dag Mountains in Turkmenistan, Iran and northern Kazakhstan. Its southern limit is Morocco and Algeria, southwards as far as the Atlas Mountains. Records from North Africa are few in number and the population there is likely to be small. Its historic range included Norway, in which it is now a possibly extirpated species. It is found from sea level up to an altitude of about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). It is found in forests, parkland, and in open countryside with scattered woodland. It roosts in holes in trees, buildings and nestboxes. In winter it hibernates in caves, mineshafts, tunnels and cellars, hiding itself away in cracks and crevices usually near the cave entrance. It is largely a resident species and the summer roosts and winter hibernation sites are usually within 120 kilometres (75 mi) of each other

Natterer's bat is nocturnal and insectivorous. It emerges at dusk to hunt for insects and uses echolocation to find prey and orient itself at night. Like many other species of bat, it emits sounds at too high a frequency for most humans to detect and then interprets the echoes created in order to build a "sound picture" of its surroundings. The frequencies used by this bat species for echolocation lie between 23–115 kHz and have most energy at 53 kHz. The individual signals have an average duration of 3.8 ms. The widebandwidth of its frequency-modulated search signals enables it to detect prey only a few centimetres from vegetation and it does not use vision, olfaction or sounds emitted by its prey for this purpose. The bat feeds on the wing and it mostly catches insects in flight but it is also able to feed on prey items such as spiders and caterpillars dangling close to foliage on silken threads. During a study of the bat's diet, examination of droppings showed that it can also gather prey items from the ground. The diet was found mostly to consist of large Diptera (flies) but Trichoptera (caddisfly), Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants and hoverflies) and Arachnida (spiders and harvestmen) were also commonly eaten. The remains of other prey items occasionally found in the droppings included Lepidoptera (moths), Coleoptera (beetles), Hemiptera (bugs), Dermaptera (earwigs) and Chilopoda(centipedes). This bat may use its interfemoral membrane to catch prey and the fringing hairs may have a sensory function. It has been shown that it can land on the ground to pick up and pursue invertebrates that are active at night, and continues to emit search signals in order to locate them precisely.

Breeding takes place in the spring and many Natterer's bats may congregate in a nursery roost. After fertilisation, a female normally gives birth to a single offspring after agestation period of fifty to sixty days, but twins sometimes occur. Weaning takes place six or seven weeks later and the juvenile becomes sexually mature the following year

The IUCN has listed the Natterer's bat in its Red List of Threatened Species as being of "Least Concern" because it has a very wide distribution and is abundant in many parts of its extent. The population trend seems to be steady and no significant threats have been identified. The IUCN does note however that in some parts of its range woodlands are under threat and land management practices are changing. Roosting sites in trees and buildings may be destroyed and in Africa, cave roosting habitats are being damaged. The bat is used in traditional medicine practices in North Africa.

Natterer's bats are protected under the European Habitats Directive, the Bonn Convention (Eurobats) and the Berne Convention. In the United Kingdom their rarity means that woodlands containing the species may be considered for notification as Sites of Special Scientific Interest or Special Areas of Conservation and may attract a grant under Natural Englands Environmental Stewardship scheme

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos and videos Mammari , Pomos by George Konstantinou

Saturday 18 July 2015

Egyptian fruit bat - Rousettus aegyptiacus (Geoffroy, 1810) Νυχτοπάππαρος - Φρουτονυχτερίδα - Cyprus

Ανήκει στην κατηγορία των μεγαχειρόπτερων και είναι το μεγαλύτερο σε μέγεθος είδος νυχτερίδας που υπάρχει στον τόπο μας.

Η Κύπρος αποτελεί τη μοναδική ευρωπαϊκή χώρα που φιλοξενεί πληθυσμούς του είδους και αυτό το κατατάσσει στα πολύ σημαντικά είδη της κυπριακής Πανίδας.

Από τα 19 είδη νυχτερίδων που υπάρχουν στην Κύπρο είναι το μοναδικό που τρέφεται με φρούτα ενώ τα υπόλοιπα τρέφονται με έντομα. Για το λόγο αυτό ο νυχτοπάππαρος καταπολεμήθηκε άγρια τόσο σε άλλες χώρες όσο και στην Κύπρο γιατί χαρακτηρίστηκε επιβλαβής για τις καλλιέργειες, με αποτέλεσμα τα τελευταία 20 χρόνια, σε συνδυασμό και με την καταστροφή των βιοτόπων του να παρουσιάζει σοβαρή μείωση στον πληθυσμό του. Στην ουσία το είδος αυτό καταναλώνοντας μόνο ώριμα και υπερώριμα φρούτα, τα οποία τις περισσότερες φορές είναι ακατάλληλα για την αγορά, συμβάλλει στη μείωση της εξάπλωσης επικίνδυνων για τη γεωργία εντόμων, όπως η Μεσογειακή μύγα.

Φωλιάζει σε μεγάλες σπηλιές, τρύπες βράχων και παλιά λατομεία.

The Egyptian fruit bat or Egyptian rousette (Rousettus aegyptiacus) is a species of Old World fruit bat

.Egyptian fruit bat found throughout Cyprus, Africa, except in the desert regions of the Sahara, and throughout the Middle East, as far east as Pakistan and northern India. Due to its extensive geographic range, and relatively large wild population, Rousettus aegyptiacus does not hold any specific conservation status.

The Egyptian fruit bat is small compared to some of its megachiropterid relatives. Its wingspan averages 60 cm (2 ft), and body length around 15 cm (6 in). Its weight is typically around 160 g (5.6 oz). Males are larger than the females and can be easily distinguished by their large scrotal sack. This bat is typically light brown in color, with darker brown wings. It has large, pointed ears, dark eyes, and a long dog-like muzzle - which sometimes leads it to be referred to as a flying fox. Its fur is very soft, and the wings feel like pantyhose

.Like many bats, Egyptian fruit bats are nocturnal. They spend their days roosting in trees orcaves, often with large groups of other bats, sometimes numbering in the thousands. They emerge from the roost to forage for food in the late evening, and return just before dawn. They hang upside down, with their wings folded closely around their bodies. Egyptian fruit bats, along with other species in the genus Rousettus, are the only megachiropterid bats to use echolocation, which they accomplish by emitting a series of sharp clicks with their tongues. The clicks are normally slow and constant, and speed up dramatically when the bats approach an object. They also make use of a range of vocalizations for communication, including grunts and screeches. As a result, a large roosting colony can be a deafening cacophony.

Egyptian fruit bats are frugivorous, consuming large amounts of fruit each night. Wild dates tend to be a favorite, but they will consume almost any soft, pulpy fruit. Most of their diets tends to consist of unripe fruit and insect- and fungus-damaged fruit, which allows them to thrive in habitats where ripe fruit are not available year-round.

Maturity is reached at about nine months of age. Females typically give birth to only a single baby each year, but twins are occasionally born, after a gestation period of around 115–120 days. The young are carried by the female until they are able to hang from the roost on their own (after about six weeks), then they are left in the roost while the mother forages for food. Once the baby bat can fly, at about three months of age, it will leave the roost on its own to hunt for its own food. Offspring typically stay with the same colony as the parents for their entire lives.
The Egyptian fruit bat is well represented in zoos around the world. They breed readily in captivity and easily adapt to a captive diet of more commonly available fruits and nectar

These bats, as well as many other fruit-eating bats, are ecologically important because they are pollinators or seed dispersers for many species of trees and plants. The baobab tree, for instance, relies almost exclusively on fruit bats to pollinate its flowers. Unfortunately, fruit bats also eat fruit crops intended for human consumption, so are consequently poisoned or otherwise eliminated by farmers to prevent loss of crops.

The Marburg virus is carried by Egyptian fruit bats in Africa. The Marburg virus is related to Ebola, thus the virus may be carried by an otherwise healthy fruit bat, which may not be readily showing symptoms that negatively affect the bat. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photos Nicosia,Mammari by George Konstantinou

Videos Pafos, Polemi by George Konstantinou