Northeast Europe to Western Siberia, to the west – eastern France and Switzerland, to the east – to Yenisei River, south – to Austria and Northwest Kazakhstan. In Bulgaria it has not been established. Echolocation signals are identified along the Danube river.
A medium-sized bat. The dorsal fur is dense pale grey-brown and the ventral is white or light-greyish, which makes it sharply demarcated from the dorsal fur. The color of the face of the adults is reddish light brown and of the juveniles – darker. Short tragus, slightly bent inwards, with a blunt tip. The feet are large with long bristles. Young animals have a black-blue mark on the lower lip that gets paler in the course of time.
The calls are 4 – 8 ms long. The frequency-modulated signals start at 65 – 85 kHz and end at 25 – 35 kHz. The calls are very similar to those of Daubenton’s bat, but stronger. The Pond bat has very distinctive calls with 15 – 25 ms duration with end frequencies of 32 – 37 kHz. This calls are characteristic over large surfaces of water.
Areas with slow-flowing rivers, canals, lakes and ponds. Found in forest plains and meadows. Winter roosts are in low mountain ranges. The Pond bat is a medium-range migrant from summer to winter roosts of about 100 km (maximum 330 km).
Summer roosts in roof spaces in buildings and tree holes. The winter roosts are situated in caves, mines, bunkers and cellars.
Nursery colonies form in May. They consist of only adult females with their young. The males live in small separate colonies. The copulation is in the beginning of fall to the end of hibernation. The young are born from mid-June and displace in August.
The flight is faster and higher than Daubenton’s bat. Hunts over calm water surfaces, large reed beds, meadows and forest edges. The food consists of mosquitoes, moths and flies.
In the middle of the 20th century, the population declined because of the obstruction of roosts and the use of toxic timber treatment chemicals. The Pond bat is highly a endangered species due to the fragmentation of the habitat and the low population density.
Christian Dietz and Andreas Kiefer (2014), “Bats of Britain and Europe”;
Vasil Popov, Atila Sedefchev (2003), “Mammals in Bulgaria”;
Vasil Popov, Nikolay Spasov, Teodora Ivanova, Borqna Mihaylova and Kiril Georgiev (2007), “Mammals important for conservation in Bulgaria”.