Bats are brilliant. They are the only mammals on the planet capable of powered flight, and can navigate through the darkest night by the power of echolocation.
Across the globe they are vital pollinators, valuable pest controllers and even effective tree-planters. There are 1,300 different species worldwide and they can be found almost everywhere but the frozen North and South Poles.
Here in the UK there are 18 species of bat, and all of them have been recorded in Sussex. Sadly, many are rare and Sussex is home to the rarest of all. A single greater mouse-eared bat roosts faithfully in the same secret location every winter, and is almost certainly the last of his kind left in Britain. He’s also our largest resident bat species, with a wingspan of 45cm – about the same as a starling.
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Esta historia es de la edición October 2020 de Sussex Life.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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TAKE YOUR TIME
Dean Edwards’ new cookbook features delectable recipes that you can slow cook or stick in the oven. Here’s a selection of the best
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The rugby legend took the reins at Sussex County Cricket Club in 2017, rekindling his love for a sport that first won his heart on the village cricket fields of North Yorkshire
NAKED AMBITION
In the 1980s, Christine and Jennifer Binnie partied with Boy George and Marilyn and bared all as performance art collective The Neo-Naturists. Now they are working together to gain the recognition they feel they deserve
ROCKET MAN
Astronaut Tim Peake has come a long way since growing up in Westbourne and attending Chichester High School for Boys: 248 miles above Earth, to be precise. But, he says, life on the International Space Station has a lot in common with family caravanning holidays
Revolution man
Lewes’ most famous resident Thomas Paine may be the greatest propagandist who ever lived. But how did a humble customs and excise officer ignite the touchpaper for revolution in not one but two countries?
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All in a day's work
Meet Tim Dummer, who has helped keep Midhurst’s Cowdray Estate shipshape for an impressive five decades
My favourite Sussex
Bruce Fogle is an author and a vet with a practice in London who has lived in West Sussex with his wife, the actress Julia Foster, since 1989. He recently became president of RSPCA Mount Noddy near Chichester
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Brighton is often rated one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the UK. What these restaurants prove is that plant-based food doesn’t have to be puritanical – at all of these places you’ll find big flavours and a desire to push the envelope
