Bicolor leather. Kozhan bicolor Leather bats
Kazan dvuhkalyarovy
Registration locations:
all administrative districts of Belarus
Family Smooth-nosed (Vespertilionidae).
A rare species of bats in Belarus (flying and migratory), however, it is found throughout the territory of the republic. In recent decades, the range has expanded towards Western Europe, but almost everywhere this species is rare. In addition, in these years, in many places of the range, including Belarus, there is a significant decrease in the number of the species. It is included in the IUCN lists as a rare, vulnerable species in Europe.
Wingspan 26-30 cm, body length 4.7-6.4 cm; tail 2.9-4.7 cm; ear 1.3-1.9 cm; forearms 3.9-4.8; weight 12-16 g.
The hairline of the back is high, dense, wavy, dark in color, with a clearly visible silvery ripple. The bases of the hairs are brown, sometimes from brown to light brown, and the tips are silvery white. IN general combination the fur turns brownish with a silvery-yellow tint. The belly is whitish or yellowish-cepoe and creates a very clear color contrast with the back.
The ear is relatively short, not narrowed at the top , its width is greater than its height. The ears and the front of the muzzle are equally black-brown in color. The tragus is short, curved, knife-shaped and blunt at the end. The posterior outer edge of the ear in the lower part continues horizontally in the form of a hairless roller of thick skin, which descends below the oral fissure. The wings are relatively narrow.The flight membrane is dark brown. The epiblema is narrow, with a transverse bony septum.The last vertebra (end of the tail) protrudes freely from the tail membrane by 3.5-5 mm. Teeth 32-34.
Females of the two-colored leather on the sides of the chest, almost in the axillary region, have 4 nipples, unlike other European species that have 2 nipples.
The peak frequency of ultrasonic signals in normal flight is 24-26 kHz. The voice (in the detector) is reminiscent of a late kozhan, but the gurgling sounds are at a slower pace and are more drawn out.
In the conditions of Belarus, the two-colored kozhan is a typical synanthropus and does not form stable settlements outside the settlements. important hallmark of this species is the preference for the outskirts of rural-type settlements near canals, small rivers, and reservoirs. Of the more than 50 places of registration, all, with the only exception (Minsk), belong specifically to rural areas.
Two-color leather appears in Belarus in the second half of May, while females arrive earlier than males. Summer shelters are located under cornices, shutters, window trims, behind wooden paneling, very rarely - in hollows of trees. Shelters are populated by females in the second decade of May, males in the second decade of June. Often lives in common shelters with other species of bats.
The hunting flights of the two-colored leather begin a little later than the evening and bats, shortly after sunset. The flight is fast and agile. Unlike our other species that hunt outside water bodies, kozhan likes to hunt over completely open areas - wastelands, fields, cemeteries. Hunts all night, but with breaks. Very sensitive to cold at night. In cool or inclement weather, he sits in a shelter.
The basis of the diet of bicolor leather is: lepidoptera (moths, leafworms, moths, hawks, scoops, etc.) and beetles (weevils, barbels). In Central Europe, caddisflies, butterflies, dipterans and lacewings form the basis of the food of the two-colored kozhan. A more accurate study showed that this kozhan willingly eats centipede mosquitoes, chimes, mushroom mosquitoes. In Europe, the two-colored kozhan is reported to actively prey on swarming insects in the surface layer.
Maternal colonies are formed from several females, in rare cases 40-50. For this species, mixed colonies with females of other species are very characteristic: forest bat and dwarf. Males usually live separately: alone or in small groups, sometimes large ones - up to 60 or more individuals. After the transition of the young to an independent life, a strict separation of the sexes is not observed.
In June-July, females usually give birth to twins, less often - 1 cub each. Newborns are naked, blind and helpless. The cubs grow very quickly, and by the end of the first week their mass almost doubles, the previously wrinkled auricles rise, acquiring a normal appearance. In the third week, the change of milk teeth to permanent ones ends and the ability to fly is acquired. Colonies with young animals are easily detected by a quiet, but quite intense chirping. Even in normal weather years, there is an increased mortality of cubs in the colonies of the two-colored leather. It reaches 30-40% and this is the most high rate among bats of Belarus.
Like other chiropteran species, the two-colored kozhan is very attached to its shelters, always occupying them at about the same time every year.
The mating period begins from the end of July and lasts an unusually long time - until the season of autumn migrations, that is, until October. During the mating season, 1, and sometimes 2 males find a permanent refuge. At night, near this shelter, the male actively flies in a circle with a diameter of 300-400 m and calls the females with intense sounds. These mating sounds are well audible without instruments, which is the only example among bats in Belarus. The sounds resemble a loud chirping with a rhythm of 5-6 seconds. As a result of these calls, temporary harems of up to 10 females are formed at the same time.
In September, this species already disappears from the territory of Belarus, flies away for wintering in the western and, probably, in the southern directions. The maximum recorded flight distance of this species is 1440 km.
The maximum life expectancy is 12 years.
Literature.
1. Demyanchik V. T., Demyanchik M. G. "Cheriptera of Belarus: a reference guide". Brest, 2000. -216p.
2. Kurskov A. N., Demyanchik V. T., Demyanchik M. G. "Two-color leather" / Animals: A popular encyclopedic reference book ( Animal world Belarus). Minsk, 2003. P.147-149
3. Burko L. D., Grichik V. V. "Vertebrates of Belarus". Minsk, 2003. -373s.
4. Serzhanin I. N. "Mammals of Belarus". Edition 2nd. Minsk, 1961. -321s.
5. Savitsky B. P. Kuchmel S. V., Burko L. D. "Mammals of Belarus". Minsk, 2005. -319s.
Dimensions two-tone (two-tone) leather medium. Body length 54 - 64 mm. Body weight from 8 to 20 g. Body length 54-64 mm, forearm length 41-48 mm. The condylobasal length of the skull is 13.9–16.2 mm; the length of the upper row of teeth is 5.0–6.1 mm. Females usually have two pairs of nipples. The color of the fur is dark with a silvery coating. The throat is white.
Spreading. From England and France to the coast Pacific Ocean. The northern border of distribution passes through Norway, the Central regions of the RSFSR, southern Siberia, southern - through middle Italy, along the coast of the Black Sea, Iran, Kashgaria, the Himalayas, Northeast China. Settles in the USSR European part to the north to the Kalinin and Moscow regions, the Caucasus, the South Urals, Kazakhstan, the Central Asian republics and southern Siberia to the north, approximately to the line Novosibirsk-mouth of the river. Cupid. Within a vast range, the bicolor leather is distributed unevenly.
Biology. It is found both in forests and in open spaces; in the mountains rises up to 3000 m above sea level. m. Summer shelters are diverse: hollow trees, attics, voids behind wall sheathing and under eaves, cracks in rocks, etc.
Two-color leathers often live in common shelters with other types of bats. During pregnancy and rearing of young, females settle in colonies of up to 40-50 individuals. Males during this period are kept in small groups or singly. In June, females give birth to 2, less often 1 cub; the latter in the first 8-10 days of life are well distinguished from the naked cubs of other species by the dark color of the ears, tip of the muzzle and limbs. After the transition of the young to independent life, the brood colonies begin to disintegrate and a strict separation of the sexes is no longer observed.
The flight of the skin is fast and agile, they hunt all night, until dawn. They willingly feed among woody vegetation. Feeds on night butterflies, mosquitoes, beetles. It flies out to feed after sunset and feeds all night. Most of the population flies to the south for wintering outside of Russia. Wintering areas are not known. Wintering in the area of kozhana gather in caves. Life span over 5 years.
Wintering places two-tone leather are unknown; single wintering individuals were noted in the caves of Kyrgyzstan and, according to unverified data, Southern Urals. The bulk of the animals inhabiting the European part of the USSR apparently perform long-distance seasonal migrations. Migrating animals are regularly noted in August-September in Ukraine. Two-colored kozhan, ringed in western Belarus, was caught in autumn in Romania, more than 1000 km from the place of ringing.
Special protection measures have not been developed. Together with other species of animals, it is protected in the reserves and reserves of the region.
Literature. Mammals of the fauna of the USSR. Part 1. Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963
area
From England to the Pacific Ocean and from parallel 60° to the south to the line Black Sea - Caucasus - Himalayas - Turkmenistan - Iran - Mongolia - Ussuri - Japan.
Features of morphology
The bat is medium in size (forearm length 39.6–48.2 mm). The ears are relatively short, their width is greater than the length. The wing is rather narrow. The fur is short, thick. On the back, the hair is dark brown, their tips are silvery white. The white-cream or gray color of the belly contrasts with the color of the back.
Features of biology
Shelters - hollow trees, cavities in buildings, rock cracks, rarely caves. Does not form large clusters. Widmigrant. In the Crimea, probably, in addition to the local ones, animals from more northern regions winter. Currently, it is one of the rarest species in the Crimea. Flies out to hunt late in the evening and all night. It is found both in the forest and in open places. It feeds on flying insects (information about this species from the Crimea is rare). It breeds once a year. There are 40–50 females in brood colonies, each of which gives birth to 1–2 cubs in June. Often winters in high-rise buildings.
Threat factors
Shelter destruction. The reasons for the decline in numbers lie, apparently, in the death of a few colonies due to human anxiety.
Protection measures
The species is listed in Appendix II of the Berne Convention, Appendix II of the Bonn Convention and Appendix I of the EUROBATS agreement. No special security measures have been taken in Crimea. It is expedient to protect habitats, and a more detailed study of the biology of the species is also necessary.
Information sources
Abelentsev et al., 1956; Dulitsky, 2001; ChKU, 2009.
Compiled by: Dulitsky A.I. Photo: Svetlink J.
Vespertilio murinus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Squad Animals
Leather family - Vespertilionidae
The status of the species in the country and in adjacent regions
Distribution and abundance
populates Various types habitats: forests, forest-steppe areas, does not avoid the anthropogenic landscape. Shelters are in the hollows of trees, in the crevices of rocks, in human buildings. The species is found in almost all adjacent regions (Moscow, Ryazan, Kaluga, Lipetsk, Orel, Voronezh). The two-colored kozhan was noted by G.N. Likhachev for the territory of the Prioksko-Terrasny Reserve as a species "rarely found along the clearings of pine and small-leaved forests." According to Yu. A. Myasnikov, the northern kozhan is extremely rare both in the forest and in the forest-steppe parts of the Tula region.
Habitats and biology
The species inhabits a significant part of Eurasia. Active from May to September. In summer, it settles in attics, behind wall cladding, in hollows of trees, under loose bark. Females form colonies of up to several dozen individuals. More rare males settle separately. They live about 3-5 years. Mating in autumn or early wintering. Pregnancy 40-50 days. Childbirth in early-mid summer, litter 1-3 (usually 2) cubs. Kozhan fly out to hunt in early twilight, prey on flying insects at high altitude, usually above open spaces, less often - over a forest or reservoirs. The basis of nutrition is flying insects. The two-colored kozhan usually hibernates in human buildings, less often in underground shelters.
Limiting factors and threats
Unknown. Secretive, little-studied look.
Protective measures taken and necessary
The species is listed in the Red Book of the Tula region. More research is needed to collect data on the distribution and abundance of this species. No special security measures are required.
It is difficult to imagine an animal whose appearance would be more contradictory. Two-tone leather - a tiny fluffy creature that fits in a child's palm, with lively round black eyes, large ears, a frowning furry forehead and an upturned black nose resembling a piglet, looks cute and funny. But when this handsome man opens his mouth, a palisade of small sharp white teeth will remind you that we have a fearless night hunter in front of us. And on its weightless membranous wings, this baby is able to migrate 1360 km or more.
The two-colored kozhan is one of the bats that has been living near people for centuries and using rural and urban buildings as shelters. Most peoples of Europe the bats one way or another they are associated with evil spirits, but in the East, on the contrary, they serve as a symbol of happiness and joy. The amazing mechanism of echolocation allows bats to perfectly navigate in space, recognizing the reflections of sound signals. Every night they destroy a huge number of insects - pests. Agriculture, as well as mosquitoes and other midges, and therefore are among the most useful mammals.
A GIANT IN THE GENUS OF Dwarfs
The two-colored kozhan is considered large in its group of bats: its forearm length is at least 41 mm, and its wingspan is 30 cm or more. It is called bicolor for its special coat color. At the roots, the hairs are dark, and against this dark background, short light tips stand out in contrast, creating small silvery ripples. On the underside of the body, the light tops of the hairs are longer and well mask the dark bases, so the overall color tone is light, yellowish gray or light fawn. On the throat and along the edges of the body, the coloration may be pure white. Young animals are darker and look more elegant than adults. The ears of bicolor leathers are short, but rather wide, thick, dark brown in color, like the rest of the hairless skin on the muzzle. The ear has a large, up to 8 mm, tragus - a skin-cartilaginous outgrowth located in front of the external auditory meatus, salient feature smooth-nosed bats.
The wing membrane is attached to the base of the outer toe. The free edge of the interfemoral membrane of the wing is supported by a spur - a special bone and cartilage formation that is attached to the ankle joint. Kozhanov have a so-called epiblema at the base of the spur - a skin fold equipped with a transverse cartilaginous septum. Females of the bicolor leather, unlike all representatives of this genus, have two pairs of nipples located a few millimeters apart.
HEAT-LOVING NIGHT HUNTER
Two-color kozhan is an inhabitant of mountains, forests, forest-steppes, steppes and semi-deserts. He settles in hollows of trees, under lagging bark and in cracks in rocks, in caves, in attics, behind wooden paneling of houses.
Widely distributed, but not numerous throughout its range. Two-tone leather can be found from the East to the coasts of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan. The species gravitates towards southern latitudes, the northern edge of its range is the 63rd parallel. Bicolor kozhan is noted in Khakassia and other adjacent territories: in the Altai Territory, Tuva, Kemerovo region. On the Ukok plateau, this species lives in the rocks of the surrounding mountains and along the slopes of river valleys.
Two-color leathers fly out to feed 15-20 minutes after sunset and only in warm weather, and in spring sometimes during the day. Animals hunt high, rising up to 30 m above the ground, flying along mountain gorges, over edges and clearings, among trees, over grassy plains of steppes or over water. Their flight is fast, similar to the flight of vespers. When hunting, leathers emit ultrasonic beams with a frequency of about 25-27 kHz and register sound reflections from flying insects - their favorite prey. They feed on beetles, butterflies, mosquitoes. Insects tracked by kozhan, when hit by an ultrasonic beam, often fold their wings and fall down or try to turn sharply to the side and run away. The remains of kozhan prey often accumulate in places of constant feeding. Two-color leathers living in large cities (for example, in Kherson, Ussuriysk, Gorno-Altaysk, Arsenyev, Spassk-Dalny, Ulan-Ude), fly to feed outside the suburbs at night, and return to the city by morning.
Flawed echolocation
With the help of echolocation, bats not only seem to see everything around, but confidently determine the nature of the surface, and sometimes even the material of which it consists. Only wool and thick hair that absorb ultrasound are poorly recorded by an echo sounder, so a bat that flies into a room, frightened, can become entangled in human hair. If you let such a mouse safely fly out the window, it will never hurt anyone. Some insects have developed interesting mechanisms to protect themselves from bats: for example, poisonous bear butterflies, when hit by an ultrasonic beam, also emit a loud ultrasonic signal that warns the bat about its inedibility. One kind of harmless scoop butterfly has learned to give the same signal, so that the deceived animals do not touch it either.
LOVER OF GOOD COMPANY
These animals can live alone, in pairs or in small colonies. Like other bats, the two-colored kozhan is a very sociable creature. Their colonies are permanent or temporary groups of individuals, of different numbers and purposes. Scientists distinguish between rutting, brood, migratory, wintering colonies and even colonies of bachelor males. Brood colonies form in spring and disintegrate after lactation. In a ton, a group of females gathers in a daytime shelter around a reproductively active male, and often on the paths of autumn migrations. Wintering colonies can be multispecies.
Mating in bicolor kozhan usually occurs in late summer or autumn, but the male's sperm is stored in the female's body in a "frozen" state until spring, when fertilization occurs. Young animals usually mate only in early spring. In summer, the female gives birth to one or two, occasionally three cubs. Having been born (and feet first, which is no longer observed in any of the mammals), the mouse falls into the mother's tail membrane folded in a bag. The female licks the blind and hairless cub, and at this time he squeaks thinly, and by this squeak the mother will now be able to recognize him among thousands of other babies. Interestingly, practically helpless baby bats at birth weigh half the weight of their mother. They immediately hang on the mother's nipples, so that the female flies and hunts with such a load for the first time. Babies develop very quickly: on the 3-10th day, the eyes open, and the fur grows from the first week. Soon they mince and climb, and make their first flight in 3-5 weeks. The grown cubs of the female are left for the duration of the hunt in the shelter. In August-early September, the whole company flies to the south for the winter. We still know very little about the migration routes of bats.
The voices of bats are absolutely individual, and each animal can easily recognize the reflection of its own signal in a cave, where hundreds of thousands of its brothers use the echolocator at the same time. In addition to ultrasound, bats also use conventional sound signals, mainly for communication. These sounds usually lie on the edge of human perception. Children hear the chirping and squeaking of most species, older people only a few, and therefore, in some peoples, the ability to hear the squeak of bats serves as a measure of human age.
BI-COLORED LEATHER IN THE FOOD CHAIN
The diet of bats living in temperate latitudes is limited to insects. Two-colored leather destroys a myriad of flying insects, among which there are many harmful ones. small insects it eats whole, from larger ones it leaves inedible wings or chitinous plates.
NUTRITION OF TWO-COLORED LEATHER
scoops
These moths are covered with thick down that does not reflect ultrasound. Bats catch such insects mainly by the sound of their own buzzing, stopping ultrasonic location when approaching the target. Having caught up with the butterfly, the kozhan knocks it down with a blow of the wing into the substituted "pocket", the curved tail part of the membrane, and tears it apart.
mosquitoes
Having caught the ultrasonic “echo” reflected from the mosquito, the two-colored kozhan falls silent for a brief moment in order to grab the prey right on the fly, and then calmly continues to search for another victim. In an hour of hunting, he can eat up to 200 mosquitoes.
May Khrushchev
This beetle, also called May beetle, is a valuable and nutritious prey. Having found it, the kozhan makes a sharp throw to the side or down by 5-10 m. Grabbing a large beetle, it soars up, leaving behind only bitten off elytra crumbling from its mouth.
ENEMIES OF TWO-TONE LEATHER
snakes
Zoologists note snake attacks on bat nests and their reproductive colonies, mainly in southern latitudes, where such clusters are often located in tree hollows or rock crevices.
stone marten
The worst enemy of bats. It can cause great damage in places where its range coincides with the wintering colonies of the two-color leather. Small voracious predators attack sleeping animals or helpless cubs in those places where bats accumulate for wintering, or in reproductive colonies.
long-eared owl
The same as the two-tone leather, the twilight hunter. She grabs bats during their night flights. Ultrasonic echolocation of bats, owls are opposed by perfect twilight vision, the finest hearing and the ability to swift throws. From the claws of a feathered predator, a two-colored leather cannot escape.
a brief description of
Class: mammals.
Order: bats.
Suborder: bats.
Family: smooth-nosed bats.
Genus: two-tone leather.
Look: two-tone leather.
Latin name: Vespertilio murinus.
Size: body length - up to 6.4 cm, wingspan - up to 33 cm.
Weight: 12-23 g.
Coloration: back dark, brownish, belly white or gray.
Life expectancy of two-tone leather: up to 12 years.
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