The Canary long-eared bat (''Plecotus teneriffae''), also known as the Canary big-eared bat or Tenerife long-eared bat, is a species of

vesper bat Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat famili ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. According to the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

, it is

critically endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

. It feeds mainly on moths. Roosting sites include caves,

lava tube A lava tube, more rarely called a pyroduct, is a 'roofed conduit through which molten lava travels away from its vent'. If lava in the tube drains out, it will leave an empty cave. Lava tubes are common in low-viscosity volcanic systems. La ...

s and abandoned buildings.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1907 by British mammalogist Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton. He described it based on specimens in the

British Museum of Natural History The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum (Lo ...

. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

had been collected by R. Gomez in April 1887 near the town of

La Orotava La Orotava is a town and a municipality in the northern part of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands of Spain. The area of the municipality stretches from the north coast to the mountainous interior, and includes the summit of the Teide volcano, ...

. "R. Gomez" was likely Ramon Gomez, a local pharmacist who traded in medicines, old coins, and biological specimens from the Canary Islands. Its

species name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, altho ...

"''teneriffae''" is derived from

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

, which is one of the islands of the

and the place where the holotype was collected.

Description

When Hamilton described it as a new species, he noted that it was similar in appearance to the

brown long-eared bat The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat (''Plecotus auritus'') is a small Eurasian insectivorous bat. It has distinctive ears, long and with a distinctive fold. It is extremely similar to the much rarer grey long-eared bat which was ...

, ''Plecotus auritus'', but that it had "much larger wings."

Conservation

It is evaluated as

by the

. It meets the criteria for this designation because its estimated area of occurrence is less than , it is found in fewer than five locations, its population is declining, and it is losing habitat. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

due to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

, use of pesticides near forest habitat, and loss of roosting sites due to building renovation. The remaining population is estimated to number between 500 and 2000. Only two breeding colonies, one each on

La Palma La Palma (, ), also known as ''La isla bonita'' () and historically San Miguel de La Palma, is the most northwesterly island of the Canary Islands, a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in Macaronesia in the North Atlantic Ocean. La Pa ...

(in the Cuevas de los Murciélagos)Domingo Trujillo
Plecotus teneriffae Orejudo canario
2004:p 258-261 and

, are known; the larger La Palma colony is estimated to have declined by 80% in recent years. It is a protected species under Spanish law and international conventions (the

Bonn Convention The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, also known as the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) or the Bonn Convention, is an international agreement that aims to conserve migratory species throughout their r ...

and Berne Convention).

References

External links

Photographs of this species
{{Authority control Plecotus Bats of Africa Endemic fauna of the Canary Islands Mammals of the Canary Islands Endangered fauna of Africa Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals described in 1907 Taxa named by Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton