On greater noctule migration and dispersion: a comment to Russo et al. (2024)

Abstract

We respond to the note by Russo et al. “Of greater noctule “migration” from Russia to Italy: a comment on Vasenkov et al. (2023)”, which comments on our paper “Vasenkov DA, Vasiliev NS, Sidorchuk NV, Rozhnov VV (2023) Autumn migration of greater noctule bat (Nyctalus lasiopterus): through countries and over mountains to a new migration flight record in bats. Dokl Biol Sci 513:395–399. https://doi.org/10.1134/S0012496623700746” regarding our use of the term “migration”. We used “migration” to describe the long-distance seasonal flights of three greater noctule (Nyctalus lasiopterus) individuals. We chose exactly this term as it is commonly used in a broader sense to refer to bat autumn long-distance flights, when the further fate of these flying bats remains unknown. Russo and co-authors challenge the use of the term “migration” in the context of bat long-distance movements. However, we believe that it is not always easy to efficiently distinguish between cases of dispersal flight and migratory flight.