Barrier-free bat exhibits: Logistics?

[cerperal]

I think it was last year, potentially the year before, a user on this forum made a post claiming to have been bitten by a bat at Chester Zoo. The story seemed awfully dubious and from what I can remember the user also said they hadn't even contacted the Zoo...Even so, I suppose the potential is still there. But given bats are superbly adapted to flying in the dark and generally avoiding objects, combined with the lack of a news story of anyone dying of rabies, I would imagine it was a fabrication or a misattribution.

As others have said free-flying bats are pretty much the norm in the UK, and from my experience Europe as well. Berlin, Prague and Schonbrunn all have free-flying fruit bats in tropical houses, with the bats tending to stick to the ceilings. Longleat in the UK has one of the more famous bat houses in this country, which recently reopened. I can't remember what species of bats are held, but they are classic 'cave' bats, and is one of the most popular exhibits

 

[Kalaw]

The majority of bats in UK collections seem to be housed in free-flight aviaries without barriers between the space and visitors. I have visited such spaces at both Shepreth (an enclosed embankment in nocturnal lighting) and ZSL London Zoo (a diurnal rainforest walkthrough, though London does also have some bats behind glass in the nocturnal-portion of this house)

Rabies isn't a big issue in the UK, as the virus isn't present and circulating in the environment, and is only very-occasionally present in a few wild bats, so the risk of catching rabies from captive zoo bats in the UK is probably virtually non-existent

Bats and rabies FAQ's - Bats and health in the UK - Bat Conservation Trust

A small and off-topic correction - London no longer keeps any bats behind glass in the Clore. The Seba’s left in 2020 and their former enclosure now holds a mix of Potto, Moholi Bushbaby and Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat, leaving the free-flying Rodrigues in the rainforest hall aa the only bats remaining at the zoo.

 

[Yoshistar888]

This post is inspired by a recent visit to the Omaha Zoo, which has a sizable fruit bat colony in their Lied Jungle. The catch: There's no barrier between the bats and the guests. At all. They can swoop right overhead; could theoretically touch you.

I have two questions.

1 - Are there any other zoos with a similar approach to bats? i.e. not any barrier between the colony and the visitor

2 - How do zoos handle the rabies logistics of a thing like this? If a guest has contact with the bat, is that single bat tested? Does a guest just have to get PEP? What's the response?

This doesn’t directly answer your questions but here in Australia we don’t have rabies, however, it is a serious health and safety hazard to keep bats in open enclosures here due to the Australian Bat Lyssavirus (ABLV) which is a rare disease (only a handful of known human cases) similar to rabies, and is extremely fatal. All keepers that work with bats must have a rabies vaccination (there is no ABLV vaccine) as a precaution and every bat scratch or bite is treated as potentially infectious.

 

[Rizz Carlton]

Taman Safari Bogor previously have an large flying fox in their large walkthrough aviary, even earlier a larger group was held inside the cave area within said walkthrough aviary.

Suraloka Interactive Zoo recently opened an indoor exhibit, where they have an area where you can feed three of these large flying fox foxes in an barrier-less area. They're technicaly not free, they're tethered, but still there are no barrier and in the case of the latter, you practically can even pet them as long as you have the money.

Indonesian zoos, the competent few, give extra medicines and vaccines to the animals, since animal interactions are very common here. In those two zoos I mentioned, the numbers of the bats are small, so I imagine they're easy to manage and data for any issues.

 

[S. Venaticus]

This post is inspired by a recent visit to the Omaha Zoo, which has a sizable fruit bat colony in their Lied Jungle. The catch: There's no barrier between the bats and the guests. At all. They can swoop right overhead; could theoretically touch you.

I have two questions.

1 - Are there any other zoos with a similar approach to bats? i.e. not any barrier between the colony and the visitor

2 - How do zoos handle the rabies logistics of a thing like this? If a guest has contact with the bat, is that single bat tested? Does a guest just have to get PEP? What's the response?

Attica zoo has a walk through exhibit with a colony of Rodriguez fruit bats, a sloth and some bird species.

As for the second question, I m not sure... The bats usually don't come really close to visitors and all the times I have been there they have stayed at the corners, generally not flying above the visitors and I haven't ever seen them utilizing the outdoor space.

 

[Cyathea]

I did a short research in the literature and, of course, various diseases of captive bats are mentioned, including zoonoses such as rabies. However, there is almost no information to suggest that these are handled differently from other infectious diseases. So, the usual quarantine and hygiene measures are probably sufficient to keep the animals healthy. As with all zoo animals, their health is monitored and they are medicated if problems arise.

In some cases, it is even explicitly mentioned that infection of humans is unlikely.

The only exception: the AZA recommends (I don't know if this is still up to date - the specific source is a quarter of a century old) a rabies vaccination for bat keepers. Although free flight is also mentioned there, protective measures for visitors are not discussed at all. I conclude from this that the risk of infection is considered minimal.
I couldn't find any such recommendation on other continents—neither for rabies nor for Nyssa or other diseases.