Entire Mediterranean area, including many islands, north to Belgium, southern Netherlands and southern Poland. In Germany occurs only in climatically warmer areas. Also through the entire Balkan Peninsula to Romania, parts of Ukraine and the southern Caucasus. North-west Africa and Asia Minor. In the Near East, the Arabian Peninsula and central Asia to Afghanistan.1 In Bulgaria occurs all over the country, especially in karst areas.
Medium sized bat with long, woolly fur. The dorsal side is rust-brown to fox-red and the ventral side is a poorly delineated pale yellowish-brown. The young animals are more grey coloured. The face is light brown. The ears are brown and they have an almost right-angled notch at the outer edge and many scattered, wart-like growths on the auricle. The tip of the tragus does not reach the notch on the edge of the ear. The wings are brown coloured and broad. The edge of the tail membrane is supported by a straight calcar and part of it has short, straight and soft hairs.
1,5 – 4 ms frequency – modulated calls. They begin at over 140 kHz and end at approximately 38 kHz. In Bulgaria the calls are between 51 – 54 kHz.
Climatically favourable hardwood forest – rich areas. Shrubs and deciduous trees are important as well. As hunting grounds hardwood forests, open orchards, parks, and wilder gardens are visited. Geoffroy’s bat is a sedentary species. The distance between summer and winter roost is usually less than 40 km.
Cave species, but it can be found in roofs of churches, houses and abandoned buildings. The high temperature is typical in the breeding roosts.
Nursery colonies are formed in May and the copulation is at the end of the summer. The nursery colonies can comprise of 20 – 500 females. The females give birth to one young. Births take place in the middle of June to the middle of July. In August and September, Geoffroy’s bats swarm at caves, with males dominating.
They hunt in forests, forest edges and orchards. The flight is close to vegetation, the catch the prey from leaves. The food consists of spiders, harvestmen, lacewings, moths and Diptera.
Increasing fragmentation of the habitat, the use of antiparasitic drugs in livestock could critically decimate the main prey in stables. Animals also can get stuck on sticky flypapers in cattle sheds.
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”.