page_title: Natterer's bat
section_title: Distribution and habitat
hierarchical_section_title: Natterer's bat / Distribution and habitat
context_page_description: Natterer's bat is a European vespertilionid bat with pale wings. It has brown fur tending to greyish-white on its underside. It is found across most of the continent of Europe, parts of the Near East and North Africa. It feeds on insects and other invertebrates which it catches on the wing or pursues on the ground.
  In summer it roosts in deciduous and coniferous trees, buildings or bat boxes close to its feeding habitats. In winter it hibernates in caves, tunnels, mines or cellars, usually hiding in crevices. This bat was first described in 1817 by Heinrich Kuhl, who named it in honour of the Austrian naturalist Johann Natterer.
context_section_description: The Natterer's bat species complex has a western Palaearctic distribution and is native to most of Europe, parts of the Middle East and parts of northern Africa. Its range extends from southern Sweden, Finland and western Russia in the north to Ireland, the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal to the west. It extends eastwards to Ukraine, western and southwestern Asia Minor, the Levant, the Caucasus region, the Kopet Dag Mountains in Turkmenistan, Iran and northern Kazakhstan. Its southern limit is Morocco and Algeria, southwards as far as the Atlas Mountains. Records from North Africa are few in number and the population there is likely to be small. Its historic range included Norway, in which it is now a possibly extirpated species.
  It is found from sea level up to an altitude of about 2,000 metres (6,600 ft). It is found in forests, parkland, and in open countryside with scattered woodland. It roosts in holes in trees, buildings and nestboxes. In winter it hibernates in caves, mineshafts, tunnels and cellars, hiding itself away in cracks and crevices usually near the cave entrance. It is largely a resident species and the summer roosts and winter hibernation sites are usually within 120 kilometres (75 mi) of each other.
caption: Distribution of the M. nattereri species group according to the IUCN,[8] Benda et al. (2006),[9] Puechmaille et al. (2012),[10] Salicini et al. (2013),[11] Çoraman et al. (2019).[12] Type localities are indicated by stars for each described taxon.    M. crypticus   M. escalerai   M. zenatius   M. nattereri   M. sp. C   M. hoveli   M. tschuliensis   M. schaubi araxenus   Uncertain status in Cyprus