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Museum Wins The Internet After Finding A Tiny Bat In Their Rare Book Store And Nursing It Back To Health
25 February 2019
The Museum of English Rural Life/Twitter
Bats have a reputation for freaking people out. Have you seen the 1999 horror flick Bats? It's trashy as hell, but it's scarred many people's childhoods.
But bats are also really adorable.
And so is this story from the Museum of English Rural Life, whose staff members found a tiny bat and are now nursing it back to health.
The story begins simply enough...
So, we found a live bat in our rare book store. 🦇a thread 🦇— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014709.0
We have a big, boring box with lots of fun, rare historic archives and books in it. It’s so boring on the outside… https://t.co/RbPcYfzhgN— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014736.0
It’s where we keep the Ladybird Books Archive, medieval manuscripts, our children’s book collection, the WH Smith a… https://t.co/5dcRJU0Zh9— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014769.0
And then...
Do you know what’s not a book?— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014806.0
* * . * . * . * . * . * . . * * . *… https://t.co/BnZKsStWsl— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014823.0
Bats can’t even get library cards.— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014838.0
And here it is!
But here he is, chilling above a fire exit he can’t even open. https://t.co/t8Pvk7Vf16— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014895.0
Things get progressively more adorable from there:
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… https://t.co/fxOlSSrMKd— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014946.0
The bat signal was lit.— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014963.0
(the bat signal is a librarian out of their depth screaming ‘there is a BAT in the LIBRARY’ down the corridor)— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551014988.0
PLOT TWIST.
Because the universe is weird, though, one of our volunteers and former @UniRdg_Library librarian also looks after bats in her spare time.— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015028.0
@UniRdg_Library Seriously, she saves bats and nurses them back to health in a spare room and then releases them bac… https://t.co/ks6iGVt0f4— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015048.0
Awww.
@UniRdg_Library Here’s our bat. https://t.co/0ycDRzG4XL— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015077.0
@UniRdg_Library https://t.co/y2HirKaZgX— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015108.0
More information came to light:
@UniRdg_Library First things first is to check the gonads, which confirmed the bat is a boy. Male bat genitalia l… https://t.co/fNwk03ev6P— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015151.0
@UniRdg_Library We thought the bat was a type of pipistrelle, and after examining the ratio of forearm to 5th finge… https://t.co/X8NtlfMt1U— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015189.0
@UniRdg_Library This is very cool, as the species has only recently started migrating to Britain. They’ve previousl… https://t.co/yzXaISNGhL— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015246.0
@UniRdg_Library Bat populations suffered catastrophic losses up until 1981, but are now heavily protected. Their ma… https://t.co/QJuP4V10r9— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015338.0
And the bat now has a name!
@UniRdg_Library We've named the bat MERLin (...). He is helping a current project capturing and ringing Nathusius'… https://t.co/vbtkDcMMiS— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015296.0
@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ The latest update on Merlin is that: ‘it took him ages to get the hang of self feeding but… https://t.co/GQ4xhOgQTO— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015388.0
@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ Thanks for listening to our bat story! If you want it in a format that isn't about fifty di… https://t.co/BFkwJbokVm— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015473.0
@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ The tubby bugger.— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551015411.0
@UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ (also, follow @BerksBatGroup)— The Museum of English Rural Life (@The Museum of English Rural Life) 1551022736.0
And speaking of Berks Bat Group:
This is Merlin, a Nathusius pip we’ve been overwintering https://t.co/NnnNUg3901— Berks Bat Group (@Berks Bat Group) 1551018537.0
@TheMERL @UniRdg_Library @_BCT_ Planning to release him later this week in this remarkably mild weather, hoping he’… https://t.co/7lrMvTgBbC— Berks Bat Group (@Berks Bat Group) 1551018677.0
People are in love with Merlin, and can you blame them?
@TheMERL @UniRdg_Library I 😍LOVE 🦇BATS❣️ My abuela always loved to tell the story of the bat I rescued when I was a little girl— Candice Ann Moraga (@Candice Ann Moraga) 1551083084.0
@TheMERL @UniRdg_Library I keep forgetting how small bats are in other countries, I was expecting one of the big ju… https://t.co/AVbUXKSD2x— Friedrich Sarah E. Thompson 💀🏳️🌈 (@Friedrich Sarah E. Thompson 💀🏳️🌈) 1551054495.0
@TheMERL @UniRdg_Library Cute little bugger. Glad you are helping it.— September Dresan (@September Dresan) 1551042819.0
@TheMERL @UniRdg_Library Cugly Sky pupper— F1agg Σagl3t0n 🇺🇸🦅 (@F1agg Σagl3t0n 🇺🇸🦅) 1551105173.0
@TheMERL @UniRdg_Library He is adorable! You’re very lucky— storm pebbles (@storm pebbles) 1551079302.0
We love Merlin, too, in case you haven't figured it out. Here's hoping he finds a nice place to settle for the rest of the winter once he's released.
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