Fourteen years a bachelor – meet the loneliest soul in Britain | Patrick Barkham
by Patrick Barkham from Environment | The Guardian on (#18GWH)
The greater mouse-eared bat in Sussex should have up to five females in a harem, but his species was declared extinct a quarter of a century ago. Who'd be him?
He's large, big-eared and must be the loneliest creature in the country. For 14 long years, a greater mouse-eared bat has spent each winter in hibernation in Sussex, the only known representative of a species officially declared extinct in Britain in 1990.
What's even sadder is that this small mammal is naturally polygamous, and should cavort with a harem of up to five females. But our greater mouse-eared bat's best chance of company disappeared when the last known colony of females was thought to be destroyed after a cottage caught fire near Bognor Regis.
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