Hope for Britain’s loneliest bat after second species member discovered

Greater mouse-eared bat was declared extinct in the UK but ecologists now believe population recovery is possible

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.