One of them was caught and proved to be a juvenile serotine. It was viewed as an extraordinary discovery at the time but over the following decade there were records of individuals caught in mist nets and small colonies discovered in churches.
There are currently five species of bat; Soprano Pipistrelle, Common Pipistrelle, Nathusius' Pipistrelle, Noctule and Serotine, the last two being new visitors to Heathrow.
"We've had unconfirmed sightings of whiskered, Brandt's and serotine. The possibility that we may have our own population of Greater Horseshoe bats at Dolaucothi is very exciting."
Species Age Preservation Dry Crevice technique weight (g) Common pipistrelle adult ethanol 4.0 D juvenile ethanol 2.2 H Serotine Eptesicus adult ethanol 24.1 G serotinus Common pipistrelle adult mummy 2.2 C Brown long-eared bat adult mummy 3.0 I Species I-button Time period Common pipistrelle yes 14:20-17:35 no Serotine Eptesicus no serotinus Common pipistrelle no Brown long-eared bat no Table 4.
From 1977 through 2009, a total of 928 cases of bat rabies (EBLV-1 and EBLV-2) were detected in Europe, but only 10 of the 45 known indigenous bat species tested positive for lyssavirus; most were serotine bats (Eptesicus serotinus) associated with EBLV-1 (5,6).