Thumb-sized bat makes record-breaking flight and is killed by house cat

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A Nathusius' pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus nathusii) in flight. — A Nathusius pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus nathusii) in flight. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

One inch size bat who was killed by a domestic cat in Russia stole a record 1,254 miles (2,018 kilometers) from the UK before meeting its untimely end.

Female Nathusius’s pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii), who weighed just under 0.3 ounces (8 grams), was found injured in the village of Molgino in western Russia. He was taken to a local bat sanctuary but later died of his injuries, which were most likely inflicted by a cat, according to a statement from the Bat Conservation Trust in the United Kingdom (BCT).

The ring on the arm of the bat, which belonged to the London Zoo, showed that it had previously been captured near London’s Heathrow Airport by a volunteer bat logger in 2016, according to the communicated. Since then it has flown farther than any other bat in the UK

Related: The 6 smallest mammals in the world

A pair of adult Nathusius's pipistrelles in the hands of researchers.

A pair of adult Nathusius’s pipistrelles in the hands of researchers. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

“This is a remarkable and longest trip we’ve seen of any bats from Britain across Europe,” Lisa Worledge, head of conservation services at BCT, said in the statement.

The migration is also the second longest on record for a bat. The record holder is another Nathusius’ pipistrelle who traveled 1,381 miles (2,223 km) from Latvia to Spain in 2019, according to The Guardian.

“The movements of Nathusius’s pipistrelles around the UK and between the UK and the continent remain largely a mystery,” Worledge said in the statement. “This trip is an exciting scientific discovery and another piece of the bat migration puzzle.”

Reports of Nathusius’s pipistrelle are rare in the UK, mainly due to historically poor records by conservation groups. However, the Nathusius Pipistrelle National Project, which was launched in 2014 by BCT, has now recorded over 2,600 Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats in the UK, including the recently killed individual in Russia.

Environmentalists from the Pipistrelle project hope they can continue to shed light on the population levels, migration routes and reproductive success of these bats, as the species is believed to be vulnerable to climate change, as well as onshore and offshore wind turbines, according to BCT.

Originally posted on Live Science.

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