Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 5, 2017
Myotis alcathoe, the Alcathoe bat, is a small European bat. First described in 2001 from specimens taken from Greece and Hungary, its known distribution has expanded to include parts of Western and Central Europe, Spain, Italy, the Balkans, Sweden, and Azerbaijan. It is similar to the whiskered bat (M. mystacinus), but its brown fur is distinctive, and DNA sequencing has shown it to be a separate species. M. alcathoe has a forearm length of 30.8 to 34.6 mm (1.21 to 1.36 in) and a body mass of 3.5 to 5.5 g (0.12 to 0.19 oz). The fur is brown on the wings, usually reddish-brown on the upperparts, and brown below, but more grayish in juveniles. It has a very high-pitched echolocation call, with a frequency that falls from 120 kHz to about 43 kHz at the end of the call. Usually found in old-growth deciduous forest near water, it forages high in the canopy and above water, mostly for flies. It roosts in cavities high in trees. The species is considered at risk in Catalonia, Germany and parts of Switzerland due to its rarity and vulnerability to habitat loss. (Full article...)