For 21 long winters, Britain’s loneliest bat hibernated alone in a disused railway tunnel in Sussex.
The male greater mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis) was the only known individual of his kind in the country after he was discovered in 2002 – a decade after the rare species was officially declared extinct.
But the elderly bat could finally find a mate if only he returns to his old haunts – a female greater mouse-eared bat of breeding age has this month been discovered hibernating within the South Downs national park.
A second greater mouse-eared bat – the largest British bat species, the size of a small rabbit, with a wingspan stretching in flight to nearly half a metre – has also been found at Dover Castle.
“The finding of a female is rewarding and a remarkable discovery, which brings huge hope for this species,” said Daniel Whitby, an ecologist and founder of the Bat Conservation and Research Unit. It is the first discovery of a female greater mouse-eared bat in Britain since the 1980s.
The Sussex female has been carefully ringed so it can be identified in the future. It was found to be young and of breeding age, although it is not known for certain if it has bred yet.
There is now a tense wait to see if the lonely old male returns to the area. This individual was discovered, motionless, overwintering in 2002. Each summer it flew off, destination unknown, but, remarkably, kept returning to his favourite railway tunnel every winter for almost two decades.
The elusive creature vanished in 2019 and was missing, presumed dead, for two years but then delighted the bat enthusiasts who watched over it by reappearing in its hibernation tunnel in 2022 and 2023. It went awol again last winter.
“It would be great if he turned up but he’s certainly getting on a bit,” said the ecologist Nick Gray of Sussex Bat Group. “The female is not an old bat so there’s every chance it has bred and will breed again in the future.”
When the greater mouse-eared bat was declared extinct in 1992, it was the first land mammal to disappear from Britain since the wolf about 250 years earlier.
Now a warming climate and the spread of vineyards across south-east England may be helping the species, which in France enjoys foraging for food between grapevines.
Unlike other bats that zigzag through the sky collecting insects, this species descends earthwards, swooping upon grasshoppers, crickets and dung beetles. Often, it will flop on to the ground, wings outstretched to fold over its prey.
The species is being given a helping hand by a project led by Vincent Wildlife Trust (VWT) and funded by Natural England’s species recovery team, to create and enhance roosts in the region for some of the rarest bats in Britain, including the greater mouse-eared bat.
“The absence of the old male felt like the final nail in the coffin for this species in Britain, but this new discovery once again sparks hope that a mammal declared extinct could bounce back,” said Daniel Hargreaves, the bat programme manager for VWT. “The lonely male who hung around since 2002 hasn’t been seen since 2023 – but we can only hope further individuals are discovered and that a viable population is formed.
“By providing suitable roosts, restoring habitats and reducing anthropogenic threats such as artificial light and noise, this species might just stand a chance of recovering.”
The greater mouse-eared bat was never a common species in Britain. When a colony was discovered in 1957 on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula in Dorset, it caused a sensation. Photos were published in the Times and several animals were prodded out of hibernation to be filmed in TV studios. Disturbing the bats mid-hibernation killed some of them and others were spirited away by collectors.
The site where the female has been found has not been revealed but is home to 11 different species of hibernating bat, and is one of the only places in Britain where rare Alcathoe bats have been found hibernating. Gray added: “The site is undoubtably of national significance and we are so lucky to have it here within the South Downs national park.”
