Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1993, Blaðsíða 82

BATS IN THE FAROE ISLANDS
Fig. 5. og 6. Particoloured bat, Vespertilio murinus. Photo: Jiirgen Gebhard, Basel.
Mynd 5. og 6. Hýggiflogmús, Vespertilio murinus. Photo: Jiirgen Gebhard, Basel.
incl. N. Jutland (Baagøe, 1991 and un-
publ.), and south and middle Sweden (Ger-
ell and Lundberg, 1983; Gerell and Ahlen,
1992). The species is common in Estonia
(Masing, 1988; 1990) and Latvia (Peter-
sons, 1990) and it has also been found in
the southemmost part of Finland (Leh-
mann, 1983). It is not believed to breed in
Great Britain and Ireland, but a number of
individuals have been found in England,
Scotland, the Channel Islands, Shetland
and on North Sea oil rigs, perhaps suggest-
ing a migration to Great Britain for hiber-
nation (Speakman et al., 1991). There are
two records from southeast Iceland, believ-
ed to have arrived “ship-assisted” (Peter-
sen, 1993).
Migration and long distance flights are
well documented for this species (e.g.
Strelkov, 1969; Kock and Schwarting,
1987; Oldenburg and Hackethal, 1989; Pet-
ersons, 1990). In particular, intensive ring-
ing in Latvia and Estonia showed that indi-
viduals flew south-west from summer
roosts in the Baltic states (and probably
Russia) to hibemate, some all the way to
the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzer-
land and north Italy (Masing, 1988; Peter-
sons, 1990; Lina, 1990b). A number of ani-
mals flew over 1600 km, the longest distan-
ce being 1905 km. Out of two individuals
ringed in south Sweden, one was found in
the middle of Germany (Kock and Schwart-
ing, 1987) and one in Belgium (Gerell,
1987).
The particoloured bat, Vespertilio mur-
inus: Based on the westemmost indication
of breeding, the western distributional lim-
its can be said to mn from eastem France
and Switzerland, north-eastwards through
south Germany, and then to east Germany
or Poland (a single nursery is seen near
Rostock on the German Baltic coast, Zol-
lick et al., 1989). The distribution in Scan-
dinavia goes through eastem Denmark
(Baagøe, 1986; Baagøe and Jensen, 1990),
the Swedish coast and in Sweden up to 60-
61 N° (Ahlen, 1986) and southem Norway
(Stebbings, 1988; Baagøe, in press; Rydell
and Baagøe, in press). It seems rare or
absent over much of western and southern