The Mysterious Return of Great Britain's Loneliest Bat

This piece was originally published in The Guardian and appears here as part of our Climate Desk collaboration. In a dank, disused railway tunnel in West Sussex hangs a brown, furry parcel, the sole known representative of Britain’s rarest mammal. Scientists don’t like to apply emotive adjectives to animals, but if ever there were a lonesome creature, it would be this greater mouse-eared bat. The bat’s reappearance in December for its 20th winter has astounded its guardians, because of the animal’s great age, but also because it was missing, assumed…

This content is for Member members only.
Log In Register