In summer, Geoffroy’s Bats mostly roost in buildings, where they often form large clusters numbering hundreds to thousands of individuals, although in southern Europe, they often use caves as well as buildings. Single bats may roost in rock crevices in the forest (D. Russo pers. obs.). Hibernation takes place in natural or artificial underground sites. Foraging bats cover straight distances up to ca. 12 km from their nursery to feeding sites, but shorter distances are generally flown. The species selects a broad range of foraging habitats that change according to the region, including riparian habitats, olive orchards, farmland, and forest (reviewed in Dietz and Pir, in press). Foraging inside cowsheds is recorded in the northern part of the species’ range, which justifies the prevalence of stable flies in the diet. Elsewhere, spiders constitute the main prey, with lower occurrences of other arthropods (such as Diptera, Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, and Coleoptera). Prey is mostly gleaned from the foliage or surfaces, but the species also hunts on the wing. This is a sedentary species whose mean distance between summer and winter roosts is ca. 40 km (Dietz and Pir, in press), and movements > 100 km are rare (Hutterer et al. 2005).

Myotis emarginatus is a Mediterranean bat species that occurs, in Europe, from Portugal across the Italian Peninsula, central Europe, the Balkans, and eastwards to western Ukraine and the western shores of the Black Sea. The northernmost limits of the range are 51°N in Germany and the Netherlands and 49°-50°N in Poland, whereas in the south it occurs in Sicily, Crete and Cyprus (reviewed in Dietz and Pir, in press). The species is also present on the Balearic Islands (Garcia and Arbona 2009). Myotis emarginatus is expanding northwest, and two males, probably vagrant individuals, have been observed in different UK locations (BCT 2013). The range of altitudes where this species can be found varies between 0 and 2,200 m asl. The AOO and EOO have not been estimated, but based on the available locality records, they are expected to greatly exceed the threshold for a threatened category.

Out of Europe, it occurs in Türkiye, South European Russia (out of the European Red List assessment region), Transcaucasia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Arabian Peninsula, Lebanon and Afghanistan, as well as Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia (reviewed in Dietz and Pir, in press).

It is protected by national legislation in most range states. There are also international legal obligations for its protection through the EUROBATS agreement and Bern Convention. The species is included in Annex IV of the EU Habitats & Species Directive, which implies the designation of Special Areas of Conservation in the EU. According to the latest (2013-2018) Article 17 reporting (https://www.eionet.europa.eu/article17/) compiled for the EU under the 92/43/EEC Habitat Directive, the species' conservation status is unfavourable-inadequate in all biogeographic regions except the Atlantic, where it is favourable. It is protected in 1624 Natura 2000 Sites designated according to the 92/43/EEC Habitat Directive. The survival of this species is intricately tied to the conservation of its roosting sites, preservation of riparian vegetation, maintenance of high-quality water sites, and the sustainability of complex agricultural landscapes, particularly those found in traditional farmland.