SO WE HAVE A NEW MAMMAL

Britain now has seventeen resident bat species plus another four known only as vagrants. Alcathoe's bat was only described as a separate species in Greece in 2001 and until now, was thought to have too weak a flight to have been able to cross the channel. However, relatively large breeding colonies have been found in Sussex and Yorkshire, and speculation is rising that it may be present here in relatively large numbers.

So how did it get here?

Back when the CFZ was no more than a conceptual glimmer in my eye, during the early 1990s I was working on a book (which I still haven't finished) about the mystery animals of Devon. In it I mentioned the Nathusius pipstrelle, a species then only known as a very rare vagrant most commonly found in Poland.

Since then this species has been found to be breeding in the UK in some numbers. The more I look into such things I realise that - like the other flying creatures for whom the English Channel is no great boundary, such as birds and butterflies - the precise status of the bat species on the British list has got to be seen as being in a state of continual flux. If nothing else, this keeps the cryptozoologists on their toes.

Good, huh?