Merlin may well be more famous right now than Batman.
That’s because he made his own personal bat-cave in the rare book store at the Museum of English Rural Life.
He got in through a tiny hole and hunkered down sometime last fall. He was discovered by startled staff in December.
But his discovery and rehabilitation was only made public recently.
So, we found a live bat in our rare book store.
🦇a thread 🦇
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019
Here’s how he was hanging out.
But here he is, chilling above a fire exit he can’t even open. pic.twitter.com/t8Pvk7Vf16
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019
They museum at the University of Reading said “the bat signal was lit.”
“Because the universe is weird, though, one of our volunteers and former librarian also looks after bats in her spare time,” the museum explained.
Rose-Ann Movsovic couldn’t be more perfectly suited to the job.
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.
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019
Behold: the bat.
It’s male.
And fittingly, named “MERLin” after the museum’s acronym.
Here’s our bat. pic.twitter.com/0ycDRzG4XL
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019
It’s an Nathusius’ pipistrelle is a rare bat for that part of the world.
But experts are finding a few more are winding up in the UK as part of their migration routes.
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. pic.twitter.com/hkNcq2ujmT
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019
Experts were called in to tend to the winged thing.
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.
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 24, 2019
The bat was released on Wednesday night under the cover of darkness.
“He was hungry and thirsty when he came in and underweight so we’ve been feeding him up,” said Rose-Ann Movsovic of the Berkshire and South Buckinghamshire Bat Group, “And he’s now ready to go home.”
He didn’t seem keen to leave.
“At first he started flying straight back to the Archive store, but then thankfully veered into the trees,” the museum said. “Hopefully he will find other bats to roost with.”
Merlin may be gone, off with his colony, but he’s not forgotten.
A book end to an excellent story.
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) pic.twitter.com/0imLntK5NF
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 28, 2019
Oh, and now he now has a library card — in case he ever wants to check back in.
Okay…maybe bats can have library cards. pic.twitter.com/LwNzBdwXUh
— The Museum of English Rural Life (@TheMERL) February 25, 2019
Photos The Museum of English Rural Life
