Hilgendorf’s tube-nosed bat, Murina hilgendorfi (Vespertilionidae) is distributed throughout northern China, along the upper Yenisei River in Mongolia and Russia, in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, in the Primorye Territory, on Sakhalin Island in Russia, and in Korea and Japan (Kawai 2009). In Japan, only one or a few individuals are typically observed at roosting sites (Kawai 2009). Interestingly, only two roosting sites found in July 1958 and 2006 have been confirmed as nursery roosts of M. hilgendorfi (Kuroko 1958; Sato and Katsuta 2007); a tree canopy on Mt Hiko in Kyushu and a tunnel in the vicinity of the Tenryu River in central Honshu. According to recent reports of seasonal fluctuations in the population of this species in Shiga and Osaka prefectures (Abe and Maeda 2004; Harada 2011; Urano 2011), the bats congregate in caves or a shelter from November to the following June, but the bats are generally absent from these roosting sites from July to October, although a few individuals have occasionally been observed at the roosting sites during this time. Our previous banding surveys revealed that M. hilgendorfi roosts in several caves in the Akiyoshi-dai karst area of Yamaguchi Prefecture in Western Honshu from January until June (Matsumura et al. 2005), and that the number of individuals in the caves increases during April and May (Matsumura et al. 2005; Hashimoto and Matsumura 2008). Before these surveys, bat banding studies on M. hilgendorfi population dynamics had been conducted in caves in the Akiyoshi-dai karst area from 1972 to 1997 (Kuramoto et al. 1975, 1998). However, despite the long-term nature of those surveys, no nursery colonies were found in the caves of the areas surveyed. In addition, no direct evidence of the reproductive status of the few bats that were found in the caves from early spring to late summer was reported (Kuramoto et al. 1998). Although several reports have recently been published on the seasonal changes in cave usage as an ecological trait of M. hilgendorfi (Abe and Maeda 2004; Harada 2011; Urano 2011), no studies have specifically examined the life span of this species. To clarify the population dynamics of M. hilgendorfi in the caves of the Akiyoshi-dai karst area, we therefore examined the long-term movements of these bats from March 2002 to April 2011 using bat banding.