---
title: "Brown Long-eared Bat"
description: "Plecotus auritus — Mammals. The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) is a small Eurasian insectivorous bat."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/brown-long-eared-bat
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Brown Long-eared Bat

> Plecotus auritus — Mammals. The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) is a small Eurasian insectivorous bat.

- Scientific name: *Plecotus auritus*
- Category: `mammals` (Mammals)
- Habitats: `forest` (Forest)
- iNaturalist observations: 2036
- Wikidata: [Q210708](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q210708)
- iNaturalist taxon: [40416](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/40416)

## Names

- en: Brown Long-eared Bat
- de: Braunes Langohr
- es: Orejudo Dorado
- fr: Oreillard roux
- nl: Grootoorvleermuis
- pt: Morcego-orelhudo-castanho
- pl: Gacek brunatny

## Countries with the most observations

GB (280), DE (233), RU (174), PL (137), FR (109), IT (52), DK (49), NL (49), SE (47), CZ (41), ES (39), FI (25)

## Summary

The brown long-eared bat or common long-eared bat (Plecotus auritus) is a small Eurasian insectivorous bat. It has distinctive ears, long and with a distinctive fold. It is extremely similar to the much rarer grey long-eared bat, which was only validated as a distinct species in the 1960s. An adult brown long-eared bat has a body length of 4.5–4.8 cm, a tail of 4.1–4.6 cm, and a forearm length of 4–4.2 cm. The ears are 3.3–3.9 cm in length, and readily distinguish the long-eared bats from most other bat species. They are relatively slow flyers compared to other bat species.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_long-eared_bat

## Photo

![Brown Long-eared Bat](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/brown-long-eared-bat/medium.jpg)

Photo: Jo Doolin · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/126068754

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/brown-long-eared-bat?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).