Description:
The thick fur of the greater horseshoe bat is coloured ash grey on the top and a buff colour with darker tips on the underside. Older adults may however also be a reddish or russet colour. It has sharply pointed leaf shaped ears and is called the Greater Horseshoe bat due to its horseshoe shaped nose leaf, which is the horseshoe shaped piece of skin you can see around its nostrils. As the name implies it is also the larger of the two horseshoe bats found in the UK. Juvenile Greater Horseshoe bats are greyish in colour.
Distribution:
South Wales and South West England.
Habitat:
Farmland with grazing pasture, parkland and broadleaved woodland is the Greater Horseshoe bats preferred habitat. They will often roost in buildings during the summer months and will hibernate in caves, cellars, disused mines and tunnels between September and April/May. Males have also been known to change their winter roost location more than once during a single hibernation period.
Reproduction:
Although Greater Horseshoe bats mate during late autumn, they will sometimes also mate during the late winter or early spring periods. The females will form their maternity roosts in May and maternity colonies of 50 to 200 Greater Horseshoe bats are common. In certain parts of their global distribution Greater Horseshoe bat maternity colonies of 600 bats have also been recorded, however, this is an exception rather than the norm. The offspring, known as the pup will be born in mid July. Greater horseshoe bats reach maturity at around three years old.
Predators:
Their main threats are habitat loss, caused through intensive farming and the destruction of woodlands and roosting sites. This, together with the reduction in their prey, due to the use of chemical insecticides, has resulted in the overall decline of the Greater Horseshoes bat.
Did You Know?:
The Greater Horseshoe bat has declined by approximately 90% in the last 100 years.
