This exhibit and the one at Disney's Animal Kingdom (which obviously inspired this one) are the best megachiropteran bat exhibits that I have ever seen. Where are your favorite bat exhibits that you have experienced in all of your travels? Did you encounter any wild flying foxes in Australia?
This exhibit and the one at Disney's Animal Kingdom (which obviously inspired this one) are the best megachiropteran bat exhibits that I have ever seen. Where are your favorite bat exhibits that you have experienced in all of your travels? Did you encounter any wild flying foxes in Australia?
I think that Oakland certainly has the largest bat exhibit, and the height on the enclosure is phenomenal. DAK also has a cool one, with many flags flapping in the breeze alongside the bat wings. Omaha has the world's largest nocturnal house (Kingdoms of the Night) and there are some pretty cool bats underground there but my greatest bat experience might be a tie between Trinidad & Tobago and Sydney, Australia.
I taught high school for 3 months in T&T in 2008 and there were bats everywhere! I would call my wife at night (who was back home in Canada) and while I walked around outside chatting on my cell phone an amazing number of bats would whirl all around me. In Sydney Botanical Garden in 2007 my wife and I spent a couple of hours watching the bats slowly awake from their day-time slumber, squeak incessantly, and then they eventually left their roosts to set out for the night. The bats were enormous, loud as anything, and quite a sight once they were airborne in a large mass.
