The Sardinian long-eared bat (''Plecotus sardus'') is a critically-endangered species of
bat 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
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
.
This species was discovered in 2002 in the caves of central Sardinia, the
type locality being a cave in Lanaitto's Valley in the
Oliena District.
It appears to be closely related to ''
Plecotus auritus'' and ''
Plecotus macrobullaris''.
[ It was identified as a new species by a study clearly showing divergence from other '' Plecotus'' species in its mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene.]
Description
''P. sardus'' is a small bat with a head-and-body length of about , ears of about and a weight of up to . The snout is cone-shaped with a fleshy knob on the chin. The ears are oval and joined above the forehead by a fine membrane. The tragus is tapered with a blunt tip and is half as long as the ear. The wing membranes are attached to the rear part of the base of the fifth toe. The tail is long and extends a short way beyond the interfemoral membrane. The fur is fine, long and woolly and is greyish-brown dorsally and whitish or pale brown ventrally. The wing membranes are brown. Two features which distinguish this bat from related species are the cylindrical penis
A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate.
The term ''pen ...
in males and the short, Y-shaped penile bone.[
]
Status
The Sardinian long-eared bat was first identified in 2002 and is only known from three caves where it roosts. Two of these are in the Gennargentu National Park and one near the coast. It hunts in forests and the threats it faces include habitat loss and disturbance by tourism. With a small total population and a decreasing population trend, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
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 stat ...
lists it as being a "critically endangered species
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 the ...
".
References
*
External links
Sardegna Foreste
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sardinian Long-Eared Bat
Plecotus
Bats of Europe
Fauna of Sardinia
Endemic fauna of Italy
Critically endangered animals
Critically endangered biota of Europe
Mammals described in 2002