Common Pipistrelle,Pipistrellus pipistrellus

Morphological Description

Life History

Distribution

Habitat

Roost Sites and Roosting Patterns

Emergence and Flight Pattern

Foraging Behaviour

Echolocation Calls

Status and Protection

Photograph of a common pipistrelle

 

Morphological Description

  • Dorsal fur is dark to chestnut brown. Ventral fur is paler.
  • Ears are short and triangular with a rounded tip.
  • The tragus is up to four times as long as it is broad.
  • The wing membranes are opaque.
  • The calcar is up to 1/3 of the length of the tail membrane and a post-calcarial lobe is present.
  • The penis is slightly bulbous.
  • Average weight (as given by Greenaway & Hutson, 1990) 4-8 g.

The diagram below gives important average body measurements for common pipistrelles (Greenaway & Hutson, 1990).

Diagram showing average body measurements of common pipistrelles

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Life History

  • Mate from the spring through to autumn, but mainly in September and November.
  • Females may undergo torpor during pregnancy or lactation depending on feeding conditions.
  • A single offspring is born at the end of June or the beginning of July.
  • Maximum age recorded in Europe is 12 years (Schober & Grimmberger, 1989).

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Distribution

 

British distribution of the common pipistrelle

World distribution of the common pipistrelle
The British and World distributions are shown by the white areas of the maps above (as given by Richardson, 2000 and Corbet & Harris, 1991 respectively).

The British and World distributions of the commmon pipistrelle are shown by the white areas of the maps above.

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Habitat

Farmland and open woodland habitat

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  • The common pipistrelle uses a wide range of habitats, whereas the soprano pipistrelle prefers lakes and rivers (Vaughan et al., 1997).
  • Farmland, open woodland, gardens, lakes and large hedgerows.
  • The most urban-dwelling British bat species.
  • Tends to avoid very open habitat such as moorland and grassland where linear features are comparatively rare.
  • Oakeley and Jones (1998) found that maternity roosts of common pipistrelles were more common in improved grassland and built-up areas. Roosts were also situated close to water and hedgerows. These habitats are more likely to house suitable prey species and hedgerows may be used as linear features for navigation. It is therefore important to conserve hedgerows and water bodies near bat roosts.
  • The photograph on the left shows a typical habitat of common pipistrelles.

Roost Sites and Patterns

    Common pipistrelle bat boxes

  • Summer roosts: in cracks and crevices in new and old buildings, behind panelling, shutters and eaves. Also found in bat boxes and trees. The photograph on the left shows bat boxes typically used by pipistrelles. Females are found in nursery roosts of 25-50 individuals from April.
  • Barlow and Jones (1999) found that common pipistrelle nursery roosts were significantly smaller than soprano pipistrelle nursery roosts.
  • Winter roosts: trees, buildings. Exposed groups in crevices in walls and stonework. Rarely underground. Relatively insensitive to cold. Mixed sex winter roosts are inhabited from mid-November to early March.
  • Jenkins et al. (1998) found that common pipistrelles preferred roosts closer to a tree over 10m tall which had more cover within a 50m radius. Trees may provide shelter from the elements and protection from predators. Jenkins et al. (1998) also found that bats in better roosts emerged earlier than those in less desirable roosts. Bats also preferred roosts with linear vegetation nearby, this may aid navigation or foraging or possibly provide protection from predators.
  • Males occupy territories year-round and defend them during the mating season when special social calls are emitted and the bats smell strongly of musk.

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Emergence and Flight Pattern

    Multi-flash photograph of a common pipistrelle foraging.  Click for an enlargement.
  • Emerge around 20 minutes after sunset, earlier on warmer nights. May emerge in daylight.
  • Flight is erratic and agile.
  • Flies usually 5-10m above ground level (Russ, 1999).
  • Click on the photograph on the left to see an enlarged multiflash image of a common pipistrelle foraging (1/15th second between each image).
  • The photographs below show a common pipistrelle in flight.

 

 

Common pipistrelle in flightCommon pipistrelle in flight

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Foraging Behaviour

  • Warren et al. (2000) found that when foraging over water, common pipistrelles prefer areas of smooth water surface with trees on both banks. These areas were found to be abundant in flying insects and low in acoustic noise. These findings could have implications in the conservation of suitable habitats for common pipistrelle populations.
  • Often follows the same flight path every night.
  • Foraging activity is often intermittent throughout the night and is dependent on ambient temperature in the winter (bats forage when the temperature is greater than 8 degrees Celcius (Avery, 1991)).
  • Foraging period changes with weather and reproductive state. Pregnant females forage once a night for a long period. Once the young are born females make two shorter foraging trips (Swift, Racey & Avery, 1985).
  • The diet of common pipistrelles mainly consists of Diptera, particularly Chironomidae (Vaughan, 1997). Diurnal Diptera are also eaten. Aquatic insects are an important part of the common pipistrelle's diet and so they often forage near fresh water habitats. Aerial hawking is probably the predominant foraging strategy used, although some prey may be gleaned.
  • Both the common pipistrelle and the soprano pipistrelle were found to mainly eat Diptera: Nematocerca , and both had a similar dietary range (Barlow, 1997). The common pipistrelle mainly fed on insects in the families Psychodidae, Anisopodidae and Muscidae. The soprano pipistrelle mainly ate the families Chironomidae and Ceratopogonidae.
  • Prey is caught and consumed during flight.
  • Forages up to 5km from roost (Avery, 1991).
  • Typical foraging path of common pipistrelles

    Marked in blue on the diagram above is a typical foraging path of common pipistrelles (based on Russ, 1999).

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    Echolocation Calls

       

    Wave form, spectrogram and power spectrum for the echolocation call of a common pipistrelle bat

     

    Wave form, spectrogram and power spectrum for the social call of the common pipistrelle

    The echolocation call of the common pipistrelle is frequency modulated with a final continuous frequency component.

    To listen to the call of the common pipistrelle click here

    Size of sound file: 5.41 KB

    Click here to play sound

    For details of how the echolocation calls were recorded click here.

    Average values for a common pipistrelle echolocation call, as given by Vaughan et al. (1997), are listed below:

    Interpulse interval: 93.0 ms

    Call duration: 6.3ms

    Minimum frequency: 45.1kHz

    Maximum frequency: 54.7kHz

    The power spectrum on the left shows that the maximum power of the call is at a frequency of approximately 48 kHz.

    Kalko & Schnitzler (1993) studied search flight echolocation of Pipistrellus species. During the search phase echolocation type corresponded to habitat type. Where obstacles were greater than 5m away from the bat the call was less than 15 kHz in bandwidth. In cluttered habitats and when the bats were turning the call was more than 15 kHz in bandwidth. Prey was only detected when there was no overlap between the emitted call and the received echo.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Click here to listen to the social call of the common pipistrelle.Click here to play sound

    Size of sound file: 139 KB

    The social call of the common pipistrelle has four components. This can be used to distinguish the common from the soprano pipistrelle, which has a social call of three components (Barlow & Jones, 1997).

    Pfalzer & Kusch (2003) found that common pipistrelles emit four different types of social calls. A song-like complex call is emitted at the mating roost, during flight and when foraging. Repeated 'trills' are emitted at the maternity roost and when the bat is distressed. Cheep-like calls are emitted at the maternity roost.

     

     

     

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    Status and Protection

    • The British pre-breeding population was estimated at 2 million in 1995, although this was prior to the discovery of the cryptic soprano pipistrelle species (Harris et al., 1995).
    • The population has declined over the past thirty years.
    • The common pipistrelle is not at risk of extinction worldwide (IUCN status, 2001).
    • The decline in Europe of many bat populations, including that of the common pipistrelle is often partially attributed to the use of agricultural chemicals in the intensification of agriculture. The recent increase in the number of organic farms in the UK has facilitated comparative studies between organic farms and conventional farms. A study by Wickramasinghe et al. (2003) found that the dominant species on both conventional and organic farms were the common and soprano pipistrelles, both species were more common on organic farms.
    • Cats catch roosting bats, and are posing a threat to many urban populations.
    • Erection of bat boxes and protection of known nursery roosts could help maintain existing populations.

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    University of Bristol© School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol 2005. Last modified 24th February 2005.