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One
hot, sultry Friday Night at the height of the 1995 Heatwave
- the type of evening that demands cool drinks, cotton clothes
and a portable fan - Jean Mathews and I were standing on the
wrong side of the door to a hotel bar, clothed from head to
foot - hats, gloves, scarves, socks, shoes, jackets - and
drenched in Jungle Formula. It was a choice of cook in our
clothes or be eaten alive by midges. Drinkers and residents
drifted in and out of the bar, casting odd glances in our
direction. Were we trainee jungle survivalists? Mad women
on a bet? Religious fanatics? All the time we stood, our eyes
cast heavenward, muttering a mantra under our breath "437.....680.......750.........822.........930.........."
untill we reached the magic number: 998. By this time the
management training conference inside the hotel and local
drinkers had decamped onto the pavement, initially intrigued
by our behaviour, but soon drawn into the chanting. And they
weren't disappointed. For that night, they were participating
in the recording of Wale's largest bat roost - the biggest
family of pipistrelles (pipistrellus pipistrellus) in the
Principality and one of the biggest in Britain, rediscovered
and larger than before, after mysteriously disappearing the
year before.
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A
Pipistrelle Bat
Follow
this link to
The
Bats Conservation Trust
where
you will find further info on our bats.
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