The Altai-Sayan region and Southern Urals are hotspots of biodiversity. These regions are amongst the priority areas for protection in international programmes such as Global 200 (Olson and Dinerstein 2002), Frontier Forests (Bryant et al. 1997) and Last of the Wild (Sanderson et al. 2002). A biodiversity study of these regions is necessary to monitor the state of ecosystems and develop conservation measures. At the same time, these territories are extremely inaccessible for researchers and, therefore, their biodiversity is poorly understood.

The Altai-Sayan regions contain and share their name with the Altai Mountains and the Sayan Mountains. The Altai Mountains constitute a mountain range in East-Central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together and are where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The Sayan Mountains lie between north-western Mongolia and southern Siberia. The Altai-Sayan comprises 1,065,000 square kilometres. The region has high biodiversity, as it is located in transition zones between different ecoregions, altitudes and climate zones. It is in the Palearctic ecozone, with a Cold semi-arid climate. Mountain areas are covered with taiga forests, in intermountain basins steppe and semi-desert vegetation. Mountainous areas are covered with forests, and in the foothill areas – forest-steppe.

Southern Ural: the south, the widest part of the Ural Mountains, stretches from the river Ufa (near the village of Lower Ufaley) to the Ural River. From the west and east of the Southern Ural, the area is limited to the East European, West Siberian Plain and the steppes near the Aral Sea and Caspian Sea. The length of the Southern Ural is 550 km. The relief of the Southern Ural is more complex, with numerous valleys and parallel ridges directed south-west and meridionally. The climate of the Urals is continental. The average January temperatures are −15°C (5°F) in July are 20°C (68°F). The eastern areas receive 300–400 mm (12–16 in) precipitation. Maximum precipitation occurs in the summer. The winter is dry because of the Siberian High.

Fieldwork was conducted from 2012 to 2017 on the territory of the Uvs Lake Basin, Tuva Depression, Tannu-Ola mountains, Sayan Mountains and Uraltau range.

We captured bats using mist-nets (3 x 5 m, 14 mm mesh; Mitchell-Jones and McLeish 2004). In the captured individuals, the species, sex and age were determined; and the length of the forearm, body, tail, thumb, tibia, hind foot and ear were measured (Mitchell-Jones and McLeish 2004). After inspection, all animals were released.

Species identification was performed according to the following morphological features (Dietz and Helversen 2004, Tsytsulina et al. 2012): length of the forearm < 36 mm, large dimensions of the thumb (5.2–7.0 mm, usually > 5.4 mm), lower leg (15.7–18.1 mm, usually > 16.1 mm) and hindfoot (6.8–8.7 mm, usually > 7.0 mm), forearm-length: 32.0–37.4 mm, length of fifth finger: 43 – 50 mm, length of third finger: 52 – 61 mm. The hind foot length is less than half of the tibia length. The wing membrane is inserted at the base of the outer toe. Spur length is no more than half the length of the margin of the tail membrane and there are no terminal lobes or breaks present. Posterior margin of the ear has a distinct indentation. Hair with dark bases and lighter tips, frequently with golden gloss. Upper second premolar rather small (maximum 1/2 of the size of the first upper premolar) and sometimes displaced palatally of the tooth row. Singular cusp of third upper premolar is small or absent, always lower than the second upper premolar. Ears brown, the inside of the ear and the base of the tragus lighter brown, sometimes even pinkish. Nostril often heart-shaped, lateral part usually well developed. Adult individuals always without yellowish-brown hair on the sides of the neck, therefore ventral and dorsal colours of the fur sharply divided.

Identification of a number of individuals was confirmed using molecular genetic methods. Tissue samples were collected from individuals in the field using a 4 mm diameter Keyes cutaneous punch (Surgical Access Pty Ltd.), as per Worthington-Wilmer and Barratt (Worthington-Wilmer and Barratt 1996) and the tissue stored in 95% ethanol. DNA isolation was performed according to the protocol attached to the DNeasy Blood Tissue Kit (250) of QIAGEN. Primers L2985 (5'-CCT CGA TGT TGG ATC AGG-3') and H4419 (5'-GTA TGG GCC CGA TAG CTT-3') by Ruedi and Mayer (2001) were selected for PCR mitochondrial ND1 gene. Amplification was carried out using the programme, which involved 94°С (3 min), 47 cycles at 94°С (45 s), 50°С (45 s), 72°С (47 s); 72°C (5 min). Sample sequencing was performed by Sintol (Moscow). Genetic sequences were deposited in GenBank: MK292722, MK321325, MK321326.

Sequence alignment was performed by BioEdit 7.0.5.3. The evolutionary history was inferred by the Tamura-Nei model. It was possible to obtain a correlation of the corrective approach and the corrective approach. The number of substitutions per site has been measured. This analysis involved 11 nucleotide sequences. There were a total of 730 positions in the final dataset. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA X (Kumar et al. 2018). For comparison, sequences from GenBank were taken: M. aurascens (AY699856 – AY699861), Vespertilio murinus L., 1758 (AY033964), Miniopterus schreibersii Kuhl, 1817 (AY033969) (Tsytsulina et al. 2012).

The Ethics Committee of the National Research Tomsk State University has approved procedures for catching and inspection bats and taking samples for genetic studies (permit number: 02.04.2011; 13.06.2013; 06.04.2015).