Critically Endangered
Sardinian Long-eared Bat
Plecotus sardus
The Sardinian long-eared bat is a critically-endangered species of bat endemic to Sardinia, Italy.
Appearance
The snout is cone-shaped with a fleshy knob on the chin. The fur is fine, long and woolly and is greyish-brown dorsally and whitish or pale brown ventrally. The wing membranes are brown.
P. Sardus is a small bat with a head-and-body length of about 45 mm (1.8 in), ears of about 38 mm (1.5 in) and a weight of up to 9 g (0.32 oz).
Range and habitat
It hunts in forests at low elevation and favors calcareous terrain. The Sardinian long-eared bat is a critically-endangered species of bat endemic to Sardinia, Italy.
This bat is the sole surviving endemic mammal found on the Island of Sardinia, the others all having become extinct since the arrival of humans some 8,500 years ago.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
The primary threat to the Sardinian long-eared is climate change, that has resulted in recurring wildfires around its reproductive areas and in precipitation and temperature extremes during the summer. Secondary threats include direct human interference and competition with invasive feral pigeons for nesting sites. Between 2003 and 2020, the total population of the long-eared bat dropped from 950 to 340 individuals, resulting in a population loss of around 63,4%.
With a small total population and a decreasing population trend, the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists it as being a "critically endangered species".
Sardinian Long-eared Bat is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Sardinian Long-eared Bat, Wikidata item Q1455589. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
