Thread by @TheMERL

So, we found a live bat in our rare book store.

🦇a thread 🦇

We have a big, boring box with lots of fun, rare historic archives and books in it.

It’s so boring on the outside we don’t have an image on file.

But it is very exciting on the inside.

It’s where we keep the Ladybird Books Archive, medieval manuscripts, our children’s book collection, the WH Smith archive – it’s a treasure trove.

Full of lovely, lovely books.

Do you know what’s not a book?

* * . * . * . *
. * . * . .
* * . * 🦇 *. *. . *. .
* . * * . *. * .
. * . * . .

A BAT

Bats can’t even get library cards.

But here he is, chilling above a fire exit he can’t even open.

He got through a tiny hole to begin with (which we're plugging) but the hole was so tiny that our bat couldn’t find the exit, like a bewildered father in IKEA.

The bat signal was lit.

(the bat signal is a librarian out of their depth screaming

‘there is a BAT

in the LIBRARY’

down the corridor)

Because the universe is weird, though, one of our volunteers and former @UniRdg_Library librarian also looks after bats in her spare time.

@UniRdg_Library Seriously, she saves bats and nurses them back to health in a spare room and then releases them back into the wild.

Our team is full of secret X Men.

@UniRdg_Library Here’s our bat.

@UniRdg_Library

@UniRdg_Library First things first is to check the gonads, which confirmed the bat is a boy.

Male bat genitalia look like, and we quote, ‘an albino hedgehog’.

#NSFW

@UniRdg_Library We thought the bat was a type of pipistrelle, and after examining the ratio of forearm to 5th finger, and wing venation, it turns out to be a Nathusius' pipistrelle.

@UniRdg_Library This is very cool, as the species has only recently started migrating to Britain. They’ve previously travelled from the Baltic to settle in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium or France.

@UniRdg_Library We've named the bat MERLin (...).

He is helping a current project capturing and ringing Nathusius' pipistrelles, so we can learn more about their migratory habits.

@UniRdg_Library Bat populations suffered catastrophic losses up until 1981, but are now heavily protected. Their main enemies are cats, habitat destruction and diminishing food supply of bugs.

Find out how can you help bats @_bct_: bats.org.uk/support-bats

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ The latest update on Merlin is that:

‘it took him ages to get the hang of self feeding but there’s no stopping him now so he’s put on rather a lot of weight and needs a bit more flying practice before we can release him.

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ The tubby bugger.

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ Thanks for listening to our bat story!

If you want it in a format that isn't about fifty difficult-to-read tweets, we put it in a blog too: merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-views…

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ (also, follow @BerksBatGroup)

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ Every good story needs an ending, and Merlin's is a happy one.

After being cared for by @athena_42 of @BerksBatGroup over Winter, our favourite well-read bat was released on a balmy evening in our garden this week:

(Video: Claire Andrews)

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ @athena_42 @BerksBatGroup (and if you want the feature-length version of that video, see it on the hellsite that is Facebook: facebook.com/MuseumofEnglis…)

@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ @athena_42 @BerksBatGroup and, actually, it turns out bats *can* get library cards:

https://twitter.com/TheMERL/status/1100069736543645696