Wisconsin Bat Festival
April 16th 2011 marked the first Wisconsin Bat Festival. The festival was a great success when over 1500 people attended. The festival consisted of kids activities, a build-yourown bat house workshop and speakers throughout the day, including the headlining speaker Rob Mies from Organization for Bat Conservation who brought live bats to the fest. Kids activities included a "be a bat scientist" station, a lifesized cave, as well as face painting and other bat-related activities. In the "be a bat scientist" station, participants removed toy bats from a net and completed measurements of the bats. Participants wishing to explore the cave donned caving equipment and decontaminated after exiting the cave. The build-your-own-bat house workshop was a success with Wisconsin Bat Festival.
50 bat houses leaving the fest fully completed and ready for mounting.
The bat houses were made from recycled barn wood that
came from a barn that was built in 1890.
Many thanks to the over 70 volunteers as well as Natural Resources
Foundation, Wisconsin DNR, ATC and Organization for
Bat Conservation who helped make the 2011 festival a success.
Look for more information about next year's bat festival in the
coming months.
White-Nose Syndrome
A serious disease has been killing off bats in the United States and Canada. It was initially discovered in New York, but has now spread to many of the surrounding states and as far west as Oklahoma.
These bats have a white fungus growing on them during hibernation. This fungus is called Geomyces destructans. It is now estimated that over a million bats have died as a result of White-Nose Syndrome
Photo courtesy Al Hicks, New York Department of Environmental Conservation