Náttúrufræðingurinn - 1994, Qupperneq 17

hefur aðeins orðið vart tvisvar sinnum
(Stebbings og Griffith 1986), eru sáralitlar
líkur á að þær komi til íslands. Svo virðist
sem evrópskar leðurblökur geti ekki flogið
sjálfar til landsins og að eina leiðin sé sú að
þær njóti hjálpar manna. Hitt má svo heita
öruggt að fleiri leðurblökur hafa komið til
íslands þótt þeirra hafí ekki orðið vart.
Samt er engin ástæða að ætla annað en að
þau dýr sem hafa fundist gefi dæmigerðan
þverskurð af komum þessara dýra hingað.
L:jþakkir
Dr. Hans Baague, John E. Hill og Dr. Paula
Jenkins er þökkuð kærlega aðstoð við grein-
ingar á leðurblökum sem Náttúrufræðistofnun
hafa áskotnast á síðustu áram.
■ SUMMARY
The occurrence of bats
(ORDER CHIROPTERA) IN ICELAND
All known records of bats in lceland and refer-
ences are reviewed. The origin of bats and their
possible means of travel to the country is dis-
cussed.
Documented cases of bat occurrences in Ice-
land are 13, all involving single animals except
once when six animals were found togctlier
(Table 1). Three of the records are sightings
but in two further instances the animals were
not preserved. Hence, identification is avail-
able in eight instances, in all nine anintals. All
the bats were found during the second half of
the year, from August till December. Most of
the specimens are preserved at the Icelandic
Museum of Natural History.
Hutson and Hill (1986) mention an addi-
tional record, involving two animals. Sufft-
ciently strong evidence is not thought to be
available for tliis record, which probably re-
lates to Leach’s Petrels Oceanodroma leu-
corrhoa or Storm Petrels Hydrobates pelag-
icus.
Four bat species have been recorded in Ice-
land: Hoary Bat Lasiurus cinereus (4 individu-
als), Little Brown Bat Myotis lucifugus (2),
Nathusius’ Pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii (2),
and Northem Long-eared Bat Myotis keeni
septentrionaiis (1).
Finnur Guðmundsson (1943, 1944, 1957)
proposed that bats were most likely carried to
Iceland on ships or aeroplanes, less so on their
own accord. Meteorologist Jónas Jakobsson
(1964, 1967) demonstrated quite convincingly
that the Hoary Bats from 1943, 1957 and 1964
most likely reached Iceland on their own ac-
cord. The Little Brown Bat of 1944 was proba-
bly carried on a ship, convoys being frequent
between St, John’s, Newfoundland, and
Reykjavik during the Second World War. In
1981 it became obvious that bats are carried on
ships. A Northem Long-eared Bat and a Hoary
Bat were recorded on 24 August 1981 in Rey-
kjavik harbour, onboard a ship which had
docked on the 21 st upon return from North-
America. The animals were dead, but since
they had only decomposed slightly, they prob-
ably reached Iceland alive. Further four ani-
mals were discarded before without being ex-
amined.
Krzanowski (1977) mentions that Koopman
and Finnur Guðmundsson (1966) overlooked
Pennant (1784, 1787a) as references to bats in
Iceland. They dismissed these references in-
tentionally, since Guðmundsson (letter of
23.11.1965) considered Pennant’s statements
about Icelandic animals not trastworthy
enough. Flowever, in view of the present
knowledge on bats in Iceland they may also oc-
casionally have reached Iceland in former
times, especially on the wing.
Fig. 1 shows the fínding localities of bats in
Iceland. The distribution is decidedly southerly
and westerly. This is to be expected given the
origin of most of the animals, which are mainly
frorn North-America rather than Europe. This
is exactly the opposite to what is found in va-
grant birds (see annual rare bird reports in the
bird bulletin Bliki). This is surprising given the
much more frequent shipping traffic from Eu-
rope.
During last fifty years, bats have been re-
corded in lceland in average every fifth year.
Their frequency may have increased during
this century, especially if one assumes bats are
ntainly ship-assisled. Bolli specimens of the
only European species recorded, the Nathus-
ius’ Pipistrelle, were found in Southwest-Ice-
land. Therefore they were probably ship-as-
sisted, or else they would be more likely to
have been recorded in Southeast-Iceland.
My conclusion is that European bats are un-
able to reach Iceland on their own accord,
while both vagrancy and ships seem to be open
to the North-American ones.
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