Animal species differ considerably in longevity. Among mammals, short-lived species such as shrews have a maximum lifespan of about a year, whereas long-lived species such as whales can live for more than two centuries. Because of their slow pace of life, long-lived species are typically of high conservation concern and of special scientific interest. This applies not only to large mammals such as whales, but also to small-sized bats and mole-rats. To understand the typically complex social behavior of long-lived mammals and protect their threatened populations, field studies that cover substantial parts of a species’ maximum lifespan are required. However, long-term field studies on mammals are an exception because the collection of individualized data requires considerable resources over long time periods in species where individuals can live for decades. Field studies that span decades do not fit well in the current career and funding regime in science. This is unfortunate, as the existing long-term studies on mammals yielded exciting insights into animal behavior and contributed data important for protecting their populations. Here, I present results of long-term field studies on the behavior, demography, and life history of bats, with a particular focus on my long-term studies on wild Bechstein’s bats. I show that long-term studies on individually marked populations are invaluable to understand the social system of bats, investigate the causes and consequences of their extraordinary longevity, and assess their responses to changing environments with the aim to efficiently protect these unique mammals in the face of anthropogenic global change.

动物种类的寿命差异很大。在哺乳动物中，寿命较短的物种（例如鼩鼱）的最长寿命约为一年，而寿命较长的物种（例如鲸鱼）的寿命可以超过两个世纪。由于它们的生活节奏缓慢，长寿物种通常受到高度保护和特殊科学兴趣。这不仅适用于鲸鱼等大型哺乳动物，也适用于小型蝙蝠和鼹鼠。为了了解长寿哺乳动物典型的复杂社会行为并保护其受威胁的种群，需要涵盖物种最大寿命的大部分时间的实地研究。然而，对哺乳动物的长期实地研究是一个例外，因为在个体可以生存数十年的物种中，收集个体化数据需要长期的大量资源。跨越数十年的实地研究不太适合当前的科学职业和资助制度。这是不幸的，因为现有的对哺乳动物的长期研究对动物行为产生了令人兴奋的见解，并为保护其种群提供了重要的数据。在这里，我展示了对蝙蝠的行为、人口统计和生活史的长期实地研究的结果，特别关注我对野生贝希斯坦蝙蝠的长期研究。我表明，对单独标记的种群进行长期研究对于了解蝙蝠的社会系统、调查其超长寿命的原因和后果以及评估它们对不断变化的环境的反应非常有价值，目的是有效地保护这些独特的哺乳动物。人为的全球变化。