Juste, Javier

Trujillo, David

Trujillo, Domingo

Durant l’inventari de les ratapinyades del parc natural de s’Albufera des
Grau, al nord-est de Menorca (Illes Balears), i portat a terme a agost i setembre de
2008, s’han reconegut 11 espècies de ratapinyades. Durant l’esmentat inventari s’ha
capturat, per primera vegada per a l’arxipèlag balear, la ratapinyada d’aigua (Myotis
daubentonii). De fet, la captura d’11 mascles i 4 femelles d’aquesta espècie indiquen
la presència d’una població estable de M. daubentonii a l’illa de Menorca, sent
aquesta ratapinyada, junt a Myotis emarginatus, les dues úniques espècies exclusives
d’aquesta illa. Aquesta troballa obri interessants qüestions sobre les rutes de
colonització i origen d’aquesta població i recolza la realització d’aquest tipus
d’inventaris per determinar la biodiversitat real de les Illes Balears i poder, així,
establir polítiques de conservació adients.During a bat diversity survey in the s’Albufera des Grau Natural Park, nordest
Minorca (Balearic Islands) and carried out in summer 2008, a total of 11 different
species were identified in the area. In this survey, we captured for the first time
Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii), being this the first record of this species not
only for Minorca Island but also for the Balearic Archipelago. In fact, a total of 15
individuals (11 males and 4 females) of M. daubentonii were either mist-netted or
hand-netted during the survey indicating the presence of a permanent population of
this species on the island, and being Daubenton's bat together with M. emarginatus
the only two bats found only in Minorca Island. This finding raises interesting
questions about the colonization route followed by the species and indicates the
importance of carrying out this type of surveys in order to achieve accurate estimates
of the Balearic biodiversity and in order to establish appropriate conservation
policies

Garcia, David

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

First record of Daubenton’s bat Myotis daubentonii 
(Kuhl, 1817), for the Balearic Islands (Spain) 
 
Domingo TRUJILLO, David GARCÍA & Javier JUSTE 
 
SHNB 
 
 
 
SOCIETAT D’HISTÒRIA 
NATURAL DE LES BALEARS 
 
Trujillo, D., García, D. & Juste, J. 2008. First record of Daubenton’s bat Myotis 
daubentonii (Kuhl, 1817), for the Balearic Islands (Spain). Boll. Soc. Hist. Nat. 
Balears, 51: 169-176. ISSN 0212-260X. Palma de Mallorca. 
 
 
During a bat diversity survey in the s’Albufera des Grau Natural Park, nordest 
Minorca (Balearic Islands) and carried out in summer 2008, a total of 11 different 
species were identified in the area. In this survey, we captured for the first time 
Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii), being this the first record of this species not 
only for Minorca Island but also for the Balearic Archipelago. In fact, a total of 15 
individuals (11 males and 4 females) of M. daubentonii were either mist-netted or 
hand-netted during the survey indicating the presence of a permanent population of 
this species on the island, and being Daubenton's bat together with M. emarginatus 
the only two bats found only in Minorca Island. This finding raises interesting 
questions about the colonization route followed by the species and indicates the 
importance of carrying out this type of surveys in order to achieve accurate estimates 
of the Balearic biodiversity and in order to establish appropriate conservation 
policies. 
Keywords: bats, Chiroptera, Minorca, Balearic Islands, Myotis daubentonii.  
 
PRIMERA CITA DE Myotis daubentonii (KUHL, 1817), PER A LES ILLES 
BALEARS. Durant l’inventari de les ratapinyades del parc natural de s’Albufera des 
Grau, al nord-est de Menorca (Illes Balears), i portat a terme a agost i setembre de 
2008, s’han reconegut 11 espècies de ratapinyades. Durant l’esmentat inventari s’ha 
capturat, per primera vegada per a l’arxipèlag balear, la ratapinyada d’aigua (Myotis 
daubentonii). De fet, la captura d’11 mascles i 4 femelles d’aquesta espècie indiquen 
la presència d’una població estable de M. daubentonii a l’illa de Menorca, sent 
aquesta ratapinyada, junt a Myotis emarginatus, les dues úniques espècies exclusives 
d’aquesta illa. Aquesta troballa obri interessants qüestions sobre les rutes de 
colonització i origen d’aquesta població i recolza la realització d’aquest tipus 
d’inventaris per determinar la biodiversitat real de les Illes Balears i poder, així, 
establir polítiques de conservació adients. 
Paraules clau: ratapinyades, Quiròpters, Menorca, Balears, Myotis daubentonii.  
 
Domingo TRUJILLO, José Betancor Cabrera, nº 20. 38410 Los Realejos. Teneriffe, 
Canary Islands, Spain. E-mail: domtrujillo@terra.es ; David GARCÍA, Son Borrás, 
nº 14. 07340 Alaró. Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. E-mail: baldritja@yahoo.es ; 
Javier JUSTE, Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC), Avda. Mª Luisa s/n, Aptdo. 
41080 Seville, Spain. E-mail: juste@ebd.csic.es. 
 
Recepció del manuscrit: 18-nov-08; revisió acceptada: 30-des-08. 
 
 
Introduction 
 
The Balearic archipelago located in the 
Western Mediterranean is made up by four 
main islands: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and 
Formentera in addition to several islets 
nearby. Minorca (40º00’N-04º05’E) is the 
second largest island (694 km2) and is only 
170     Boll. Soc. Hist. Nat. Balears, 51 (2008) 
 
36 km apart from Majorca and 199 km 
from the closest mainland point of the 
Spanish coast. 
The bat fauna of this archipelago is 
quite diverse and a total of 19 species have 
been cited for any of these islands so far. 
Somehow surprisingly, the check-list of the 
Balearics is still open since collecting 
efforts have been traditionally focused 
basically on cave-dweller bats and there are 
still several habitats that have not been 
sampled properly; particularly stand out for 
their importance the evergreen oak and pine 
forests and/or the shore marshes which 
have been traditionally neglected. In fact, a 
new species was added to the bat 
community of the Balearics with the 
discovery of Pipistrellus nathusii in one of 
these marshes areas in Majorca only last 
year (Trujillo & García, in press). No 
endemisms have been found so far in bats 
and all species seem to be evolutionary 
close to the mainland, although to 
reconstruct and full understand the past 
history of these mammals a molecular 
revision of the Balearic bats is hardly 
needed. Only 14 bat species have been 
reported so far in Minorca Island: 
Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Rh. 
hipposideros, Myotis emarginatus, M. 
escalerai, M. capaccinii, Pipistrellus 
pipistrellus, P. pygmaeus, P. kuhlii, 
Hypsugo savii, Nyctalus leisleri, Eptesicus 
serotinus, Plecotus austriacus, Miniopterus 
schreibersii and Tadarida teniotis (Alcover 
& Muntaner, 1986; Quetglas, 1997; Serra-
Cobo et al., 2006). Consequently, there are 
five missing species in Minorca in relation 
to other Balearics islands: Rhinolophus 
mehelyi, Barbastella barbastellus, Myotis 
myotis, Pipistrellus nathusii and Nyctalus 
lasiopterus (Alcover & Muntaner, 1986; 
Quetglas, 1997; Serra-Cobo et al., 2006; 
Trujillo & García, 2008), accepting as valid 
the presence of Nyctalus lasiopterus in 
Majorca which citation is based only on 
some echolocation calls listened in Majorca 
and which were attributed to this species 
(Serra-Cobo et al., 2006). Nevertheless, the 
species has never been seen or caught. In 
this note we report the capture of Myotis 
daubentonii, a new species for this 
Mediterranean archipelago, found so far 
only on Minorca Island. 
 
 
Material and methods 
 
In August and September 2008, a total of 
11 different bat species were either captured 
or detected in the S’Albufera des Grau 
Natural Park’ (northeast Minorca) by the 
first two authors and in the frame of an 
inventory of its vertebrates fauna (Fig. 1). 
This protected area consists mainly in a 
region of brackish waters surrounded by 
Mediterranean maquia dominated by mastic 
trees (Pistacia lentiscus), evergreen oaks 
(Quercus ilex), and overall, by wild olive 
trees (Olea europaea) with associated 
Mauritania grass (Ampelodesmos mauri-
tanica).  
For our bats’ survey we applied different 
complementary methods as recommended 
by different authors (Ahiartza, 2004; 
Flaquer et al., 2007). Namely, we used 
mist-nets of different length (3-18 m), a 
harp-trap set in the open across water 
surfaces and inside forested areas and 
finally hand-nets that were used to capture 
bats in natural cavities and buildings as they 
were resting at night. Apart from these, 
three bat-detectors (Pettersson Elektronik 
AB, D230, D240 and D240x models) were 
used to monitor bat activity in the trapping 
localities. Captured bats were all measured 
with calliper (accuracy 0.01 mm), weighed 
(accuracy 0.1 g) and some phenological 
characters recorded (e.g. reproduction, 
dentition, moult, etc) in the field before 
D. Trujillo et al., First record Myotis daubentonii for the Balearic Islands     171 
 
 
Fig. 1. Capture locality in Minorca of Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii). First locality for the 
Balearic archipelago. 
Fig. 1. Localitat de captura en Menorca de la ratapinyada d’aigua (Myotis daubentonii). Primera 
localitat per a l’arxipèlag balear. 
 
being released in the. Wing-punches were 
also taken from several individuals for 
future molecular studies. 
 
 
Results and discussion 
 
Several small Myotis bats were caught 
during our field work in mid August and 
September. The first being a small sub-
adult male hand-netted while he was resting 
pending from the ceiling of an abandoned 
small house. The next day, a group of 
similar bats consisting in six males and at 
least one female was spot inside two cracks 
in the roof of a natural cavity. All bats by 
one were mist-netted inside the cavity and 
three additional ones (one male and two 
females) were netted as they were trying to 
get in from outside. Finally, another bat was 
caught with a hand-net inside the cavity. In 
September 21 seven additional specimens 
were captured in the same cavity (three of 
them consisted in recaptures of bats netted 
in the previous visit). All these small 
mouse-eared bats were dorsally dark 
greyish with contrasting whitish bellies 
(Fig. 2) and were clearly distinct from 
172   Boll. Soc. Hist. Nat. Balears, 51 (2008) 
 
 
Fig. 2. Daubenton’s bat (Myotis daubentonii) captured in s’Albufera des Grau Natural Park (Minorca 
Island) in August 14, 2008 (Photo by D. Trujillo). 
Fig. 2. Ratapinyada d’aigua (Myotis daubenonii) capturada al Parc Natural de s’Albufera des Grau 
(illa de Menorca) el 14 d’agost de 2008 (foto de D. Trujillo). 
 
any of the three small Myotis known in 
Minorca Island. In fact, they lacked the 
hairy fringe in the uropatagyum typical of 
M. escalerai; the clear notch in the outer 
edge of the ears typically found in M. 
emarginatus. Finally, they were 
differentiated from the close M. capaccinii 
because of their general smaller size, naked 
upper caudal membrane (hairy in M. 
capaccinii) and their very different colour 
both in dorsal and ventral fur (dorsally 
greyish in M. capaccinii). Forearm 
measurements averaged 36.7 mm (N = 11, 
range = 35.63 – 38.05) for males and 37.03 
mm (N = 4, range = 35.47-38.21) for 
females respectively (Table 1). Similarly, 
average weights were 7.0 g (N = 9, range = 
5.4-8.85) for males and 7.77 g (N = 4, range 
= 7.0- 8.55) for females respectively (Table 
1). External characters and measurements 
fit with the species Myotis daubentonii 
(Schober & Grimmberger, 1996; Dietz et 
al., 2007), confirming the presence of a 
stable population of this species in Minorca 
Island.  
The cavity where the M. daubentonii 
were captured was also used probably as 
nocturnal roost by Rhinolophus 
hipposideros, Myotis capaccinii, Pipis-
trellus pipistrellus, Eptesicus serotinus and 
Plecotus austriacus. Besides, the same 
building where the single male was 
captured was also used as nocturnal resting 
spot by several individuals of Rhinolophus 
ferrumequinum and to roost by a colony of 
P. pipistrellus. Both localities were only 6.5 
D. Trujillo et al., First record Myotis daubentonii for the Balearic Islands     173 
 
Males Females 
Forearm Weight Forearm Weight 
37.61 6.8 37.37 7.15 
36.58 6.25 35.47 7.0 
35.84 6.9 38.21 8.55 
35.80 6.4 37.07 8.35 
37.38 6.5 – – 
38.05 – – – 
35.63 – – – 
37.63 8.85 – – 
37.03 7.85 – – 
36.70 8.1 – – 
35.85 5.4 – – 
  
Table 1. Forearm measurements and weights (in mm and g respectively) of the 15 specimens of 
Myotis daubentonii captured in s’Albufera des Grau Natural Park in Minorca Island. 
Taula 1. Les mesures de l’avantbraç i els pesos (en mil·límetres i grams, respectivament) dels 15 
exemplars de Myotis daubentonii capturats al Parc Natural de s’Albufera des Grau, a l’illa de 
Menorca. 
 
 
km apart in straight line and were not far 
from the most important swampy areas and 
marshes of the island (Addaida and 
s’Albufera des Grau salty flats) which are 
most probably used as foraging areas by the 
species.  
The Daubenton’s bat, Myotis dauben-
tonii, is a Palaearctic species widely 
distributed across most of Europe, and 
extending from Central Scandinavia to the 
south of the Iberian Peninsula, including 
some of the largest islands in the 
Mediterranean Sea such as Corsica or 
Sardinia (Mitchell-Jones et al., 1999; Dietz 
et al., 2007). In the Iberian Peninsula is 
found across all regions although always in 
their specific habitats, being more abundant 
in the Northern half (Ibáñez, 1998). Myotis 
daubentonii is in fact, consistently 
associated to water surfaces (streams, 
ponds, lakes, etc.) and it shelters in a 
variety of roosts from bridges or buildings 
to crevices in rocks (Warren et al., 2000). 
The Daubenton’s bat seems to show a 
remarkable uniformity across its distri-
bution and already Corbet (1978) 
synonymized under the nominal form all 
previously described subspecies. 
Nevertheless, Tupinier (1977) described a 
new form as M. nathalinae from Central 
Spain (Ciudad Real) distinguished by 
morphological characters (smaller size and 
darker pelage). This form seems to 
represent a proper evolutionary lineage 
according to a recent study based on 
mitochondrial DNA (Simões et al. 2007). 
174   Boll. Soc. Hist. Nat. Balears, 51 (2008) 
 
To which lineage the Daubenton’s bat of 
Minorca belongs to is still an open pending 
of a molecular checking. 
The presence of M. daubentonii in the 
island of Minorca may have stayed 
overlooked to other researchers due to the 
fact that most of previous works were 
focused on cave-dweller bats (Alcover & 
Muntaner, 1986; Quetglas, 1997; Serra-
Cobo et al., 2006) and the swampy areas 
used by this species were probably not 
surveyed properly since are not particularly 
rich in this type of refuges.  
On the other hand, the finding of 
Daubenton’s bats in Minorca brings out 
interesting questions about the origin of this 
island population and opens the possibility 
of this bat being also present in other 
islands of the archipelago, like Majorca, 
larger and closer to the mainland than 
Minorca. In Majorca only the similar M. 
capaccini has been found so far. 
Nevertheless, in the area of s’Albufera de 
Alcudia  several short and sharp 
echolocation calls with a maximum energy 
frequency between 41-55 kHz were 
recorded by the first two authors over a 
water surface that could belong to M. 
daubentonii. Nevertheless, both bats show 
similar echolocation calls, overlapping most 
of their sound variables (Boonman et al., 
2008). In fact, only the study at hand of 
captured bats can demonstrate without 
doubts their presence on any place and 
particularly on the islands of the Balearic 
archipelago. This point is particularly 
critical in the case of species like M. 
daubentonii or Nyctalus lasiopterus that 
have similar echolocating calls than other 
bats from which they are difficult to tell 
apart using only this character. 
Finally, the finding of two new mammals 
for the Balearic Archipelago only in the last 
two years, stresses the importance and 
necessity of carrying out this type of 
surveys over all different habitats 
(particularly protected areas) on all the 
islands that make up this unique 
archipelago in order to achieve a 
comprehensive assessment and valuation of 
its biodiversity. 
 
 
Acknowledgments 
 
Our thanks to D. Martí Escudero, director 
of s’Albufera des Grau Natural Park for his 
interest and enthusiasm in this project. To 
Oscar García, naturalist in this park for his 
help and advices. To Patricia Arbona and 
Carlos Ibáñez for thier careful review of 
this note.  
 
 
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176     Boll. Soc. Hist. Nat. Balears, 51 (2008) 
 


Primera cita de Myotis daubentonii (Kuhl, 1817), per a les Illes Balears

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