Abstract： From May to September in 1997, the postnatal growth of villus noctule (Nyctalus velutinus) was investigated by the method of mark-recapture on the campus of China West Normal University. Three hundred and eighty-eight young bats (184 males and 204 females, including recaptured ones)were observed and measured. At birth,young N. velutinus were naked and pink,with closed eyes and folded pinnae. Length of forearm and body mass for 1-day-old pups averaged 17.18±1.12 mm and 3.73 ±0.46 g, equivalent to 33.3 % and 18.0 % of the value of adults respectively. The forearm length and body mass increased in a linear pattern before day 20 at mean growth rates of 36 mm/d and 0.57g/d respectively. The regression equation is length of forearm = 15.49 + 1.36 × age days and body mass =3.05 +0.57 ×age days. Subsequently the growth reached stability. Forearm length and body weight reached 95.37% and 80.4% of adults in the fifth week after parturition when pups began to fly clumsily. The length of the total epiphyseal gap of the fourth metacarpal-phalangeal joint increased until 15 days, then decreased linearly until 76 days and thereafter closed. Of the three nonlinear growth models (Logistic,Von Bertalanffy and Compertz), the logistic equation provides the best fit to empirical curves for length of forearm, while the Von Bertalanffy equation provides the best fit to empirical curves for body mass. The equation of determining the age of N. velutinus between 1 and 76 days was found based on linear changes observed either in the length of forearm or in the length of epiphyseal gap of the 4th metacarpal-phalangeal joint. When forearm length was ≤43.32 mm,age = -10.77 + 0.71 × length of forearm, when forearm length was > 43.32 mm,age = 71.10 - 9.89 × the length of fourth epiphyseal gap of the 4th metacarpal-phalangeal joint.
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