**2. Bat-eating owls**

The owl diet studies revealed that most owls are sometimes eating the bats although none makes a living out of them as other prey are much easier to capture. Well-studied European owl species ate a total of 19,864 bats [1]. At least 49 bat species have been identified in the diet samples (**Table 1**).

Barn Owl *Tyto alba* and Tawny Owl *Strix aluco* have captured most of all bats (47.1 and 42.6%), and Long-eared Owl *Asio otus* comes next (7.3%). Short-eared Owl *Asio flammeus* and Eagle Owl *Bubo bubo* take similar amounts of bats (1.2 and 1.3% respectively). For Tengmalm's *Aegolius funereus*, Ural *Strix uralensis* and Little Owls *Athene noctua* bats were fairly rare prey item, with less than 0.1–0.4% of this material [1]. Scops Owl *Otus scops* and Pygmy Owl *Glaucidium passerinum* ate less than 10 bats, so they are not included in **Table 1**.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


**3. Bat prey species**

Most commonly owls are taking *Pipistrellus pipistrellus* (16.0%), *Myotis myotis* (15.2%), *Pipistrellus kuhlii* (11.9%), *Vespertilio murinus* (9.8%), *Nyctalus noctula* (9.1%), and *Eptesicus serotinus* (7.3%), that is, six most eaten species make 70% of the material. All these mostly eaten

**Table 1.** Occurrence of the bat species in increasing order of weight in the diet of eight most studied owls in Eurasia [1]. Bat weights from [2–10], as an average of values given. Sp. weight is the average of the species of that family. Owl diets included:

*Aegolius funereus*, *Athene noctua*, *Asio otus*, *Tyto alba*, *Asio flammeus*, *Strix aluco*, *Strix uralensis* and *Bubo bubo*.

**Bat species Weight of the bat species in g No of owl species as** 

*Rhinolophus* sp. 14.6 2/8 0.02 *Rhinolophus bocharius* 15.1 1/8 0.03 *Nyctalus leisleri* 16.0 2/8 0.16 *Vespertilio murinus* 16.6 5/8 9.82 *Vespertilio* sp. 16.8 1/8 0.01 *Vespertilio sinensis* 17.0 1/8 0.06 *Rhinolophus mehelyi* 17.6 1/8 0.01 *Eptesicus* sp. 18.5 1/8 0.01 *Hesperoptenus* sp. 18.8 1/8 0.01 *Otonycteris hemprichii* 19.0 3/8 0.40 *Eptesicus bottae* 20.5 3/8 0.17 *Myotis blythii* 21.3 5/8 1.64 *Eptesicus serotinus* 23.4 5/8 7.31 *Rhinolophus ferrumequinum* 23.5 3/8 0.93 *Taphozous nudiventris* 28.0 4/8 0.23 *Nyctalus* sp. 28.1 1/8 0.01 *Nyctalus noctula* 28.3 5/8 9.12 *Myotis myotis* 32.8 6/8 15.24 *Tadarida teniotis* 38.0 3/8 0.07 *Nyctalus lasiopterus* 40.1 2/8 0.02 *Cynopterus sphinx* 46.0 1/8 0.01 *Scotophilus heathi* 50.0 1/8 0.01 *Rousettus leschenaulti* 60.0 1/8 0.01 *Rousettus aegyptiacus* 135.0 2/8 0.49 **Total number of bats eaten 19,864**

**predators**

**Percentage of the Total**

3

Introductory Chapter: Bats Eaten by Owls http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76099


**Table 1.** Occurrence of the bat species in increasing order of weight in the diet of eight most studied owls in Eurasia [1]. Bat weights from [2–10], as an average of values given. Sp. weight is the average of the species of that family. Owl diets included: *Aegolius funereus*, *Athene noctua*, *Asio otus*, *Tyto alba*, *Asio flammeus*, *Strix aluco*, *Strix uralensis* and *Bubo bubo*.
