Social calls of the Soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus)

Recordings from 2020 to 2026

These type C social calls in the first row of snippits were recorded while soprano pipistrelles were leaving their maternity roost in Zuid-Holland. The type D social calls, their typical 3-component variants, in the second row of snippits were recorded on forest paths nearby the roost.

Date of recording: 2020-05          Recorded by: Zoogdierenwerkgroep Zuid-Holland          Audio file: Download here

The following example is an advertising male, emitting type D social calls while in flight. Fourteen social calls are present in the recording.

Date of recording: 2024-09-20          Recorded by: Sjoerdtje de Boer          Audio file: 1008590 

A year later at the same location as the previous recording, an advertising male was recorded again. This time a few 4-component variants of the social call were pesent as well along side their ususal 3-component variants. A social call that was partially joined-up was also recorded.

Date of recording: 2025-08-31          Recorded by: Sarah Mahie, Boaz van Die          Audio file: 1034292, 1034293, 1034294, 1034296 (Batlogger), 1034301, 1034302 (Echo Meter)

Type C social cals (first two snippit) and type D social calls (last four snippits), including 2-, 3- and 4-component versions and some with components joined, recorded near a lake where the bats of a known maternity colony were foraging. The type D social calls of the soprano pipistrelle can be differentiated from the common pipistrelle, whose echolocation is also present in the recording, by their higher end frequency, which is around 20 kHz.

Date of recording: 2026-05-21          Recorded by: Sarah Mahie          Audio file: 1136426, 1136475, 1136476, 1136477, 1138212, 1138214

The following type C social calls (the first three snippits) were recorded in the vicinity of the maternity roost and the type D social calls (the last, fourth, snippit) was recorded in a different area, close to forest, though still nearby the roost.

Date of recording: 2026-05-27          Recorded by: Sarah Mahie          Audio files: 1138474, 1138475

Even though these are not recorded in the Netherlands, but in Germany, I wanted to show the type A and B social calls that the soprano pipistrelle can produce:

Date of recordings: 2025-08-20, 2025-08-21          Recorded by: Christian Kahle (Germany)          Audio files: 1031660, 1031661, 1031662

All recordings are licensed under the following Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 license and in courtesy of Sarah Mahie. 
All sonograms are screenshots of the recordings imported in the ultrasound analysis software BatExplorer 2.2 (Elekon, Switzerland). 

 

Bibliography:

- Jamaul, R. & Barataud, M. (2018). GraphB v1.8. http://geoeco.fr/ecologie_acoustique/en/appli_graph 
- Neil Middleton, Andrew Froud and Keith French (2022). Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland. Second edition. Pelagic Publishing.