Smithsonian National Zoo Bat cave exhibit questions

[DavidBrown]

I just learned that there was once a bat cave exhibit in the big cat building at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Did anybody here ever see that?

If so, do you know what species of bats were kept, and why and when the exhibit was shut down?

 

[jayjds2]

National Zoo Working to Understand and Save Endangered Bats

I'm not sure if this was the species that was on exhibit, but this is article about a species Smithsonian used to keep.

 

[AmbikaFan]

Sometime about 15 years ago, the bat population in the bat cave had grown to either four times the capacity of the exhibit or 4,000 bats, something with four. The bats were, I believe, all moved to other zoos, except some males. I don't know that rationale, just what the keepers told me at the time. It took a LONG time to clean the cave, during which the remaining bats lived in a holding area or other exhibit. The sign on the door was removed, and I don't think it's been used for exhibit space since. Every so often during a special event, I'll see someone emerge with chairs or other party necessities. Having becoming a handy storage location, if there are still bats inside, they must occupy on a fraction of the original space.

All I found was scientific info on in situ bat research, but if this info is to be found, expert researcher@Andrew_NZP is your man.

 

[Gondwana]

I saw the exhibit once. You used to be able to take a ramp or stairway into a corridor which brought you down to the level of the cat exhibit moats. Once in the corridor there were small glass viewing windows into the cat exhibits and the bat exhibit was in the corridor as well. The exhibit itself was a nondescript glass box style bat exhibit, and had either Jamaican Fruit Bat or else Seba's Short-tailed Bat (can't remember which). There was also a small aquarium with Blind Cave Tetras.

It closed sometime around 2005. The early/mid 2000s was a period when the zoo was significantly downsizing its collection. Partly this was to clear space for Asia Trail resulting in loss of the Australia House, most of the species in the elephant house (giraffe, rhino, hippo, pygmy hippo, capybara), and a few other ungulates like Malayan Tapir and Eld's Deer. The zoo also abandoned other exhibits around this time without replacement. In addition to the bats other abandoned exhibit ares were the small carnivore loop and bear grottos, although many of those species were re-homed in Asia Trail. My sense is that the additional exhibit closures were a combination of budget, safety, and animal welfare concerns.

 

[Coelacanth18]

According to @jibster, the bat exhibit in Smithsonian's big cat building was home to hammerhead fruit bats that were there during the 1980's, but the exhibit was closed by at least 2001. While that timeline doesn't exactly match what @Gondwana posted, jibster's description of the exhibit sounds pretty much the same. It's possible that the hammerhead bats departed sometime during the 90's and were replaced by smaller fruit bats before the exhibit closed entirely. The discussion can be found on page 2 of my Zoobat Collections thread here: Zoobat Collections (N. America)

National Zoo Working to Understand and Save Endangered Bats

I'm not sure if this was the species that was on exhibit, but this is article about a species Smithsonian used to keep.

The article says that those Virginia big-eared bats were kept at SCBI in Front Royal.

Edit: here is a scientific document from 1990 with a photo of two hammerhead bats at the zoo. The URL posted by @Chlidonias in that thread no longer works, but I got access to it through the Wayback Machine: Wayback Machine

 

[Gondwana]

According to @jibster, the bat exhibit in Smithsonian's big cat building was home to hammerhead fruit bats that were there during the 1980's, but the exhibit was closed by at least 2001. While that timeline doesn't exactly match what @Gondwana posted, jibster's description of the exhibit sounds pretty much the same. It's possible that the hammerhead bats departed sometime during the 90's and were replaced by smaller fruit bats before the exhibit closed entirely. The discussion can be found on page 2 of my Zoobat Collections thread here: Zoobat Collections (N. America)



The article says that those Virginia big-eared bats were kept at SCBI in Front Royal.

Interesting. My first visit to the National Zoo was 2004 so the bat exhibit was certainly open at that time, but by the time of my next visit a year or two later it was closed. Perhaps they started with hammerheads, closed the exhibit for a time when they died out, brought in one of the common small fruit bat species (that I saw in 2004), and then turned around and closed it again.

 

[AmbikaFan]

I saw the exhibit once. You used to be able to take a ramp or stairway into a corridor which brought you down to the level of the cat exhibit moats. Once in the corridor there were small glass viewing windows into the cat exhibits and the bat exhibit was in the corridor as well. The exhibit itself was a nondescript glass box style bat exhibit, and had either Jamaican Fruit Bat or else Seba's Short-tailed Bat (can't remember which). There was also a small aquarium with Blind Cave Tetras.

It closed sometime around 2005. The early/mid 2000s was a period when the zoo was significantly downsizing its collection. Partly this was to clear space for Asia Trail resulting in loss of the Australia House, most of the species in the elephant house (giraffe, rhino, hippo, pygmy hippo, capybara), and a few other ungulates like Malayan Tapir and Eld's Deer. The zoo also abandoned other exhibits around this time without replacement. In addition to the bats other abandoned exhibit ares were the small carnivore loop and bear grottos, although many of those species were re-homed in Asia Trail. My sense is that the additional exhibit closures were a combination of budget, safety, and animal welfare concerns.

Reductions of species were common everywhere at this time, as vastly-expanded habitats (like the two-acre Elephant Trails) simply eliminated space for other species. Budget was also a key factor in DC, as the deferred maintenance discovered in the late 1990s required tons of money just to make buildings safe, no frills. The Australia Pavilion had to be demolished immediately.

I don't know what the inside configuration of the bat space is now. I do know that keepers look out those small windows to get cats to come inside the adjacent doors, so maybe those areas have been converted to additional accommodations and chutes. One the zoo got Luke, Shera, and Naba, the building was hopping with animals, and a complicated rotation schedule must have been needed for the often-double lion litters, Sparky, and Dumai and cubs. Then when the lion cubs got bigger, it seemed downright small. Now with the larger Amur tigers, perhaps still Sumatran tigers?, and still more double litters of lions, the building is going to be in need of as much room as it can get.

 

[AmbikaFan]

(giraffe, rhino, hippo, pygmy hippo, capybara), and a few other ungulates like Malayan Tapir and Eld's Deer. The zoo also abandoned other exhibits around this time without replacement. In addition to the bats other abandoned exhibit ares were the small carnivore loop and bear grottos, although many of those species were re-homed in Asia Trail. My sense is that the additional exhibit closures were a combination of budget, safety, and animal welfare concerns.

OMG! I was just swearing that there was a capybara in the elephant house next to the pygmy hippo--in addition to the one in the old, tall wrought-iron aviary on the trail up to the bird house. I thought about this and said, "Naaaa. Why would they have had him in the elephant house?! Surely I'm remembering this incorrectly.". I'm so glad to learn that my mind is not completely gone yet lol.

 

[Gondwana]

OMG! I was just swearing that there was a capybara in the elephant house next to the pygmy hippo--in addition to the one in the old, tall wrought-iron aviary on the trail up to the bird house. I thought about this and said, "Naaaa. Why would they have had him in the elephant house?! Surely I'm remembering this incorrectly.". I'm so glad to learn that my mind is not completely gone yet lol.

The Elephant House was definitely overstuffed prior to its renovation and expansion! I'm glad the elephants got the space they needed, but it's too bad that they didn't figure out a way to bring back some of the other large mammals.


Getting back to the bats, the Internet Wayback Machine holds the answer.
Mammal Index - National Zoo| FONZ
In 2004 the zoo website lists both Jamaican Fruit Bat and Seba's Short-tailed Bat. In 2005 they are no longer listed.

 

[Tim May]

I just learned that there was once a bat cave exhibit in the big cat building at the Smithsonian National Zoo. Did anybody here ever see that?

If so, do you know what species of bats were kept, and why and when the exhibit was shut down?

It's almost thirty years since I was last in the Smithsonian (Washington) Zoo but I remember seeing the Bat Cave beneath the big cat enclosures. On my visits it housed hammerhead bats but it might well have been subsequently used for other species.

 

[AmbikaFan]

It's almost thirty years since I was last in the Smithsonian (Washington) Zoo but I remember seeing the Bat Cave beneath the big cat enclosures. On my visits it housed hammerhead bats but it might well have been subsequently used for other species.

You saw the exhibit then when it was relatively new, about 10 years, and people must have still been oohing and aahing about its improvements over prior cage exhibits. Yet, I don't like it because the tiered sections don't offer any motivation for the cats to move or play. The best action of the year comes when they do cub "swim tests" and literally through cubs into the moat to make sure they can survive before letting them out into the exhibit unsupervised. The size of the moat seems to take a disproportionately large area of the building's footprint, leaving even less room for the cats to run and play.

 

[Tim May]

...The size of the moat seems to take a disproportionately large area of the building's footprint, leaving even less room for the cats to run and play.

I'd never seen hammerhead bats before, so I paid much more attention to them than I did the cats.

However, I agree with your comments about the amount of space occupied by the moat; that's so often a problem with moated exhibits.

 

[Andrew_NZP]

I don't really know much about the former bat cave, I do remember seeing it, but if it did close in 2005 or before, I only would've been 4 years old at the oldest, so I could be remembering wrong.

However, according to the Smithsonians website (Bats on Exhibit), the exhibit opened in 1984, and closed in 2009. However, like @Gondwana said, the zoo doesn't list any species of bat on their website past 2004.

I believe it became office space.