Barbastella barbastellus (Schreber, 1774)

Toffoli, Roberto, Culasso, Paola, Locatelli, Andrea G. & Giraudo, Luca, 2016, Bats of Alpi Marittime Nature Park (North West Italy) and Site of Community Importance IT 1160056: distribution and status, Natural History Sciences 3 (1), pp. 3-13 : 8

Barbastella barbastellus (Schreber, 1774)

Risk Level Europe: Vulnerable - VU ( Temple & Terry, 2007).

Italy: Endangered - EN ( Rondinini et al., 2013).

This species was found hibernating with only one individual each time in two cavities of Grotte del Bandito caves and Vernante municipality. It was observed at Grotte del Bandito during winter 2005/2006 for the first time and it is now regularly present with a single individual each year. Here 27 individuals were also mist-netted (21 males and 6 females) between August and October, suggesting a swarming activity for the species ( Toffoli & Culasso, 2010). It was furthermore identified (with bioacoustic methods) during foraging activity at different locations inside or near deciduous forests up to an altitude of 1600 m .