The whiskered bats Myotis mystacinus and related species, are small Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an bat

Bat

Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...

s with long fur

Fur

Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...

. Although uncommon, M. mystacinus is often found around human habitation and around water

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

; it is similar to Brandt's bat Myotis brandtii, from which it was distinguished as a separate species only in 1970.

The analysis of morphological, behavioural and especially of genetic characters have since identified further cryptic species of whiskered bats in the genus Myotis, including Myotis alcathoe

Myotis alcathoe

Myotis alcathoe is a European bat in the genus Myotis. Known only from Greece and Hungary when it was first described in 2001, its known distribution has since expanded to Spain, England, Sweden, and Azerbaijan, among other countries. It is similar to the whiskered bat and other species and is...

(described in 2001 from Europe). Myotis aurascens

Myotis aurascens

Myotis aurascens, known commonly as the Steppe Whiskered Bat, is a species of mouse-eared bat. It was originally assigned to Myotis mystacinus....

and Myotis ikonnikovi are other similar species.

Echolocation

The frequencies used by M. mystacinus for echolocation lie between 34-102 kHz, have most energy at 53 kHz and have an average duration of 3.0 ms.

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