This is going to be a fascinating experiment! Will there be as much love for bats as there was for hedgehogs?

You know the score, if you want to join in you will need to use the Substack version since this platform turned off comments. Also that is where you will see other pictures too …

I have just popped copies of the RSPB Pocket Book of Hedgehogs (that link takes you to WildSounds - best online source of wildlife books in the world - AND - cheaper than Amazon!) in the post to Tracey and Sophie, who were among the 120 people who correctly got the ever so complex question correct last week … how many people will be after a copy of The Bat Book?

Well, I have two copies to sign and give away to the randomly selected winners of this next single question quiz… but what question?

I did a sold out launch event at Caper, my local bookshop, on Thursday - we drank all the wine and ate all the cake and I was very much filled with a sense of satisfaction.

At the event I gave a short speech (thank you Zoe for filming) in which I extolled the virtues of hedgehogs and bats - going so far as to argue that the two animals are pretty much identical. Which other two animals are all four of these things:

Mammals
Insectivorous
Nocturnal
Hibernating

In Britain there is only one other mammal that hibernates … that could be the question, but no, it is not batty enough. Though I am sure you all got it anyway - the dormouse!

I also shared my most favourite bat question - damn, that is a giveaway so I can’t use this as the question either - which is the fastest flying animal in the world?

Most people go with Peregrine Falcon - but they don’t fly that fast, they just fall VERY fast, up to 300km/hr. In level flight the accolade was held for many years by the swift - which is not a great shock, but relatively recently scientist tracked a BAT flying at 160km/hr - the record for a swift is ‘just’ 110km/hr! The bat is not one we will spot around here though - it is the Brazilian free-tailed bat.

I wrote The Bat Book well nearly a year ago, it was due to be published last September. So it was with some trepidation that I read it for the first time since then - and I am pleasantly surprised. I was pleased to see that some of my more spiky statements remained unmolested by the editors - such as this,

‘A world without bats would be a world which had already slipped over the edge into ecological collapse, bringing with it not just an absence of bats but also an absence of most life on Earth.’

But my favourite thing - was discovering how many words into the book, ignoring chapter titles, I got before I mentioned hedgehogs!!!

And that, dear friends, is the question you need to answer! Though the most important clue is a picture which you will see on the substack version of this article.

This is a bit like the banknote vote … animal popularity contest - who is going to get the most attention? Will there be anything like the 120 people who wanted a hedgehog book chasing the bats? I really hope so - bats are amazing and I am really proud of this book!

I will reveal the winner at the end of the week - good luck!