Britain’s “loneliest bat” found a mate

Britain’s the male bat called the loneliest bat has finally found a mate, says the newspaper The Guardian.

A bat representing the species known as giant wing or big wing has lived alone in a railway tunnel in Sussex for 21 years. An aged male was the only known representative of its species when it was discovered in 2002. Ten years earlier, giant wings had been officially declared extinct in Britain.

However, this year a female of the same species was found in Sussex – the first time since the 1980s.

“Finding a female is rewarding. It is a significant discovery that brings great hope to this species,” said the ecologist and founder of the bat conservation and research unit Daniel Whitby According to The Guardian.

For a female a ring has been placed so that it can be identified in the future. It was found to be young and of reproductive age. Scientists don’t know for sure if it has increased yet.

Researchers are anxiously waiting to see if the lone male will move into the same territory as the female bat. It flies to its own roads every summer, but always returns to the same railway tunnel to hibernate.

“It would be great if it came out, but it’s certainly a bit old,” the Sussex Bat Society ecologist Nick Gray stated according to The Guardian.

“The female is not old, so it is entirely possible that she has bred and will breed again in the future.”

Giant wing is, as the name suggests, the largest bat species found in Britain. It is the size of a small rabbit, and its wingspan can reach almost half a meter.

The Giant-wing has never been a common species in Britain. When they were found in the 1950s on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, photographs were published in a magazine. People were very interested in the new species discovery.

Several bats were awakened from hibernation to be filmed for television. Disrupting the hibernation of the bats killed some of them. Others were taken away by collectors.

However, lessons have been learned from the case: the location of the female giant wing that has now been found has not been revealed to the public.