Nyctalus lasiopterus has a very scattered distribution through central and southern Europe (Iberia to the Balkans, Urals) and north Africa (Morocco (only two records in northwest Morocco), Libya (five records in Cyrenaica), and possibly Algeria (possibly one record in Algeria identified as Nyctalus noctula by Loche 1867, the specimen is lost)). There are an increasing number of records from Turkey (Karatas et al. 2007, Yigit et al. in press). Outside the Mediterranean region the range extends eastwards through Asia Minor to the Caucasus, northern Iran, Kazakhstan and the Urals in Russia. Of the Mediterranean islands, recorded on Sicily. The species is easy to detect with bat detectors, so it is known that the species' distribution in Europe is genuinely extremely patchy. Until 1999, it had been recorded in 120-130 localities in Europe (Benzal 1999). It occurs up to 1,900 m in Switzerland