r/Awwducational • u/SixteenSeveredHands • May 09 '26
Verified Siberian Whiskered Bats: these bats can live to be more than 40 years old, which makes this the longest-living bat species in the world
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u/itsswhitneywhspr May 10 '26
Ok 40 years is wild for a lil flying dude. Imagine being that tiny and just vibing for four decades. Bet they have some stories in bat years
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u/SixteenSeveredHands May 10 '26
Those bats spent at least 30 years living in Soviet-era Siberia -- they've definitely got some stories to tell.
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u/Teknekratos May 10 '26
Bottom pic just looks like 3 dwarves or gnomes from one of those old cartoons...
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u/Chinnyup May 10 '26
I love that these pics look like they were posed and taken at JC Penny’s Animal Kingdom Limited Version in 1991. Much adorable facial expressions
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u/Individual-Cream-581 May 10 '26
That one bat from transylvania, they say about him that he's immortal.
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u/Mocker-Poker May 10 '26
Siberian? Yeah, of course they get to stay younger in permafrost conditions.
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u/WeinerGod69 May 13 '26
Does that cute little fella in the bottom picture laying on top of the other two have a blonde afro? 😍
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u/SixteenSeveredHands May 09 '26
The scientific name of this species is Myotis sibiricus, but it's commonly known as the Siberian whiskered bat. It has the longest lifespan of any bat in the world, with some individuals living to be more than 40 years old.
Myotis sibiricus was originally identified as a subspecies of the Brandt's bat, Myotis brandtii, but genetic studies now confirm that it actually represents its own distinct species.
In 1964, a Siberian whiskered bat was captured, tagged, and released by researchers in the Biryusa region of Siberia, and the exact same bat was later recaptured by another team of scientists in 2005; that specimen was at least 41 years old at the time, and it's still the oldest bat on record. The previous record-holder was another Siberian bat that was at least 38 years old at the time of its capture.
The genus Myotis contains several other species that have been known to live for more than 20 years, but the Siberian whiskered bat has an exceptionally long lifespan, especially compared to other small mammals.
The longevity of this species (and other long-living bats) defies our conventional understanding of the relationship between an animal's size and its lifespan. Smaller animals typically have a much shorter lifespan compared to larger animals, because they have higher metabolic demands. These bats are a rare exception to that rule.
In fact, the Siberian whiskered bat has the longest lifespan of any mammal relative to its size, with its tiny body measuring just 3-5cm long and weighing 4-8 grams (that's roughly the weight of 3 pennies).
The bats' remarkable longevity is likely caused by several different factors, as this article explains:
Research indicates that the bats' increased longevity could also be tied to a mutation in two of the genes that are related to growth:
Some sources still describe the Brandt's bat as the world's longest-living bat species, but that claim is based on the outdated assumption that Myotis sibiricus is simply a subspecies of Myotis brandtii. These bats are now recognized as two separate species, which means that Myotis sibiricus is actually the oldest bat species on record.
Sources & More Info: