Nathusius's pipistrelle is a migratory bat. In the UK it catches flying insects near lakes and rivers.
The fur on its back is reddish brown and longer than that of many similar bats, sometimes giving it a shaggy look. The UK account describes it as slightly larger than the common and soprano pipistrelles.
Nathusius’ pipistrelles travel long distances between summer and winter ranges. On Latvia’s Baltic coast, researchers used acoustic arrays to map their autumn movements in three dimensions. They analyzed 432 flight trajectories recorded over three nights. Most bats travelled south along the coast.
Northbound flights were recorded on one of the three nights, when winds were stronger, and made up about one-fifth of the bats that night. The same coastal route therefore carried bats flying in opposite directions during the study. As wind energy expands along coasts and offshore, mapping when and where bats cross these routes helps planners protect migration corridors.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Among 432 flight tracks recorded on Latvia’s Baltic coast, most bats flew south, but about one-fifth flew north on a stronger-wind night. Both directions matter when planning coastal wind energy near this migration corridor.