Abstract
Growth characteristics of three species of horseshoe bats ( Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, R. euryale and R. mehelyi) were studied in northern Bulgaria, and measurements of cohorts born there in different years were compared interannually. Bulgarian horseshoe bats are usually born in the first 3 weeks of June and start to leave the roost at an age of about 3 weeks. Young horseshoe bats of all three species had attained more than 95% of the adult dimensions at the time when they started to regularly leave the cave to forage on their own in mid of July. Individually marked juvenile R. ferrumequinum reached adult dimensions in most external wing measurements in the first half of August. Accordingly the pooled measurements of all juveniles did not differ anymore from those of adult bats in the second half of August. The same pattern was found in R. mehelyi and R. euryale. We found a clear relationship between the climatic conditions prevailing in each year and the final size of individuals born respectively in those years. Whereas previous studies have addressed climatic effects only on several bat species along their northern limits of distribution, these data provide the first evidence for an influence of climate on the growth of individuals in the centre of the species’ distributions.
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