AnAge entry for Myotis bechsteinii
Classification (HAGRID: 02394)
- Taxonomy
-
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
Order: Chiroptera (Taxon entry)
Family: Vespertilionidae
Genus: Myotis
- Species
- Myotis bechsteinii
- Common name
- Bechstein's bat
- Synonyms
- Myotis bechsteini, Vespertilio bechsteinii
Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits
- Maximum longevity
- 21 years (wild)
- Source
- ref. 970
- Sample size
- Medium
- Data quality
- Acceptable
- Observations
Record longevity in the wild is 21 years [0970]. Some anecdotal reports suggest these animals may live considerably more than 20 years.
Mortality and fertility have been shown to be independent of age, at least until these animals reach high ages. This could possibly be a way of compensating for their low annual reproduction rate [1348].
Studies have shown that there is no relationship between telomere length and age in these animals. Genes related with DNA repair and the prevention of DNA damage may contribute to the maintenance of telomere length in animals of this genus [1349].
Life history traits (averages)
- Female sexual maturity
- Male sexual maturity
- Gestation
- Weaning
- Litter size
- 1 (viviparous)
- Litters per year
- 1
- Inter-litter interval
- 365 days
- Weight at birth
- Weight at weaning
- Adult weight
- 10.5 g
- Postnatal growth rate
- Maximum longevity residual
- 300%
Metabolism
No information on metabolism is available.
References
- [1349] Foley et al. (2018), Growing old, yet staying young: The role of telomeres in bats' exceptional longevity (PubMed)
- [1348] Fleischer et al. (2017), Rare catastrophic events drive population dynamics in a bat species with negligible senescence (PubMed)
- [0978] Jones et al. (2009), PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals
- [0970] Gaisler et al. (2003), Results of bat banding in the Czech and Slovak Republics, 1948-2000 (in Czech)
- [0424] Wilkinson and South (2002), Life history, ecology and longevity in bats (PubMed)
- [0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
- [0542] Bernhard Grzimek (1990), Grzimek's Encyclopedia of Mammals
External Resources
- Integrated Taxonomic Information System
- ITIS 946238
- Animal Diversity Web
- ADW account (if available)
- Encyclopaedia of Life
- Search EOL
- NCBI Taxonomy
- Entrez
- Search all databases
- Ageing Literature
- Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed
- Images
- Google Image search
- Internet
- Search Google