Flapping heck! Tiny bat’s 1,800-mile ‘record’ flight

A TINY bat may have set a new migration record in a flight that could have notched up 1,800 miles in 63 days.

The female Nathusius’ pipistrelle flew all the way from Russia to the Alps, ending her voyage in the French village of Lully. The trip, if she navigated using the coast of the Baltic Sea, was more than 3,000km (1,864 miles).

This would beat a bat of the same species which last year flew 2,018km (1,254 miles) from near Heathrow to western Russia. While that bat was killed by a cat, this one may have drowned while hunting. The matchbox-sized mammal’s body was found in a water tank.

The study was published in the journal Mammalia. Lead author Dr Denis Vasenkov, from the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the trek was a ‘very big surprise’.

He added: ‘We thought our bats were migrating to countries in south-eastern Europe and neighbouring countries – not France.’

Scientists say the mammal, which was tagged, should have travelled south but believe it may have simply got lost.