Apparently very rare and understudied, this video of an albino or leucistic bat in Montjuic (Barcelona) has been filmed by Nick Lloyd of IberiaNature and Spanish Civil War tours: https://iberianature.com/barcelona/history-of-barcelona/spanish-civil-war-tour-in-barcelona/
Unidentified species
With 10 or more species of bat known to reside in Barcelona, identification is pretty much impossible but never the less this video taken in the summer of 2022 is really interesting.
Further reading
There is a great explanation of albino and leucistic coloration in bats here.
https://batsrule-helpsavewildlife.blogspot.com/2016/11/leucism-in-bats.html
And this study from 2013 is also interesting
Abstract: Albinism and leucism are commonly confused in the literature. Despite the fact that these congenial disorders affect only a small proportion of bat populations, they seem to be widely spread since reports of affected bats are found from over the world. In this communication we report for the first time a leucistic Pipistrellus pygmaeus (Leach 1825). It was captured in the Ebro Delta Natural Park (Iberian Peninsula) in a biological field station near a wetland with rice paddies, where over 100 bat boxes are deployed to monitor bat populations. The individual had whitish fur over the whole of its body (dorsal and ventral parts); nevertheless its eyes and wing membranes had normal pigmentation. Although an albino P. pygmeaus has been reported from Spain, this represents the first report of leucism in this species.
See the full study here: https://www.mcng.cat/pdf/quiropters/_Adria_Lopez-Baucells.pdf
They go on to conclude
In this note we report a leucistic Pipistrellus pygmaeus (Leach 1825) captured in a bat box in the Ebro Delta Natural Park (Iberian Peninsula). Although a previous case of albinism has been recorded in Spain, this record represents the first report of leusicm in this species worldwide. Taking into consideration all the information regarding amelanisms in bats and the presence of white fur on several species, we consider that it would be speculation to conclude that the existence of hypopigmentation has detrimental or positive effects on individuals. Bearing in mind the lack of chromatic aberrations reported from the Iberian Peninsula, we encourage researchers to publish findings to enable us to improve knowledge of how these mutations affect bat survival and behaviour
The bats of Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar
An excellent knowledge base with links to information pages for all species. Particularily handy if you need to know the common names for each country: https://secemu.org/en/los-murcielagos-espana/
The Grazalema Guide
The best way to see all our web projects in one place is over at the Grazalema Guide.
The Grazalema Guide – Tourist Information Portal for the Sierra de Grazalema, Wildside Holidays, The town of Ronda and the Caminito del Rey.
I’ve been living in this lovely area of Western Andalucia for the last 20 years or so and dedicate most of my time to the running of English language tourist information websites for the towns of Cádiz, Ronda, Grazalema, the famous or infamous Caminito del Rey, and also Wildside Holidays, which promotes sustainable and eco-friendly businesses running wildlife and walking holidays in Spain.