Abstract The diet of the greater noctule Nyctalus lasiopterus was investigated by morphological inspection of prey remains and DNA barcoding from faecal pellets. Morphological analyses confirmed the occurrence of both invertebrate and vertebrate prey. Molecular analyses were only conducted on vertebrate remains, and revealed the presence of both avian and chiropteran prey. Bird remains belonged to two resident, cavity-nesting species (Eurasian nuthatch Sitta europaea and Eurasian blue tit Cyanistes caeruleus ), suggesting bats also hunt within tree cavities. Remarkably, bat hairs recovered from one pellet were genetically identified as belonging to the common pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus , representing the first molecularly confirmed evidence of bat-on-bat predation by a European bat species. Although based on a low sample size, these findings expand the known trophic niche of N. lasiopterus and suggest that vertebrate predation by insectivorous bats may be more widespread than currently documented.
Ancillotto et al. (Mon,) studied this question.