The first time for the territory of European Russia describes the cases of catching bats with signs of albinism. This article describes the detection of three species of bats with partial albinism in European part of Russia. There are four animal units of Eptesicus serotinus turcomanus that are stored in Penza State University. They were procured in Astrahan region in 1992 and in 1996. One more animal was found in Volgograd region in 2004. All these animals have white spots of different size and shape on their abdominal part of body. In 2012 it was caught a young female of Pipistrellus nathusii in Samarskaya Luka (Samara region) and in 2013 the scientists found a mature female of Myotis mystacinus. Both animals had a light-colored fur, red eyes and with almost white ears. Moreover, they had pale-pink noses and extremities.
Albinism refers to congenital absence of pigment of skin, hair, and eye membranes. It is currently believed that albinism is caused by the lack of tyrosinase enzyme, which is necessary for the normal synthesis of melanin—a special substance that affects the dyeing.
Although, albinism is rare, it is noticed in virtually in all vertebrate’s taxa [
Bats extremely rare have full or partial albinism [
That’s why we consider that it is necessary to describe some cases of catching bats with signs of albinism in European Russia.
The results that were obtained on the basis of long-term studies of bats in Volga region, the Urals, the Northern Caucasus are presented in this article. During winter and summer over 200,000 individuals of 23 species were viewed. All of them lived in these areas. Moreover, the bats that are kept in Penza State University ( Penza , PGU), Zoological Institute Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), Zoological Museum of the Moscow State University ( Moscow ), Saratov State University ( Saratov ), Samara State University (Samara) were studied, too.
Several animals with signs of partial albinism (piebald) were found in Penza State University’s collection. This four individuals Eptesicus serotinus turcomanus Eversmann 1840 (
Two other cases of partial albinism—leykizm were reported on young females Pipistrellus nathusii (Keyserl- ing, Blasius, 1839) and adult female Myotis mystacinus (Kuhl, 1817). Both individuals were caught on the Sa- marskaya Luka (Samara region). First caught one on the 8th of July 2012 (
Species | No. | Sex | A | L | C | Au | Tr | R | W |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E. s. turcomanus | 468 | ♂ | ad | 67.5 | 54.0 | 21.2 | - | 47.5 | 16.5 |
E. s. turcomanus | 801 | ♀ | ad | 72.7 | 49.3 | 18.6 | 10.0 | 48.8 | 16.8 |
E. s. turcomanus | 804 | ♀ | ad | 71.5 | 46.1 | 19.4 | 8.9 | 48.1 | 17.9 |
E. s. turcomanus | 1154 | ♀ | s/ad | 74.0 | 48.3 | 18.3 | 10.0 | 48.0 | 17.4 |
M. mystacinus | ♀ | ad | 40.0 | 34.7 | 14.7 | 6.7 | 34.2 | 6.0 | |
P. nathusii | ♀ | s/ad | 49.9 | 38.4 | 12.1 | 6.7 | 38.4 | 7.9 |
No.—number in a collection; A—Age; L—body length; C—tail length; Au—ear length; Tr—tragus; R—forearm length; W—Weight (body mass).
level of CZK. The second animal is detected on the 20th of November in 2013 (
It should be noticed that the detection of the individuals of one breed with signs of albinism is not unique. For example, the capture of the full albino E. serotinus in Moldova [
caught bat with partial albinism (http://www.natuurbericht.nl/?id=3897&cat=zoogdieren). All this can’t be said about the second breed, because the finding of such animal with an anomaly was made for the first time. How- ever, recently in England with exactly the same features as the P. nathusii had, was produced the individual P. pygmaeus Leach 1825 (http://www.inmagine.com/imagebrokerrm-081/ptg01125051-photo). Among other rela- tives of the species P. nathusii the full albinism known in Pipistrellus abramus Temminck 1840 [
M. mystacinus’s partial albinism was first registered in the Netherlands [
In conclusion, we should notice that detection animals with complete albinism in Russia are virtually unknown.
The only exception was the only case when the second half of September 2010 in the east part of Russia on Ku- nashir Island (Southern Kuriles) was caught an almost white individual Myotis macrodactylus (Temminck, 1840) (http://cryptozoology.ru/index.php?name=News&file=print&sid=117). According to the staff of the Kuril Re- serve the animal should be sent to the Zoological Museum of the Biologosoiled Institute, Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.