Bat babies gone; caverns site to reopen

[jonsdigs]

Bat babies gone; caverns site to reopen

- LARRY COPENHAVER,
Tucson Citizen

Kartchner Caverns State Park's Big Room, closed since April to accommodate bats using it as a maternity ward, reopens Oct. 14. The Rotunda remained open through the period.

Rotunda tours run $18.95 for ages 14 and older; $9.95 for ages 7 to 13. Big Room tours are $22.95 for ages 14 and older; $12.95 for those ages 7 to 13. Children 6 and younger are not allowed on Big Room tours.

October Kartchner programs:
● Oct. 14, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., learn how bats live and reproduce, what harms them, how they benefit humans and why many revere them.
● Oct. 17, 10:30 to 11:15 a.m., learn to make a house to attract bats. Bats are notable consumers of mosquitoes, flies and other flying insects.

Full story:
www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/28634.php

[Sharon Faulkner]

Bats leave key to Kartchner under the mat
By Dan Sorenson
October 11, 2006

You can come back in now, but wipe your feet and keep your hands off the walls. The bats have left the Big Room at Kartchner Caverns State Park, and it reopens for tours Saturday.

Park rangers say the annual maternity colony of Myotis velifer, aka "the common cave bat," has taken off for parts unknown in recent weeks, just as it has done for thousands of years. That means it's OK for us to come back in and see their spectacular maternity ward, with its world-class cave formations. The park closes the Big Room each spring, in time for the return of 1,000 or more females that come to roost in mid- to late April, give birth in June to "pinkies," the little, hairless baby bats ¡ª known as pups ¡ª and hang around until leaving between mid-September and early October.


Full Article

Additional programs announced in Sidebar to the article:

The reopening of the Big Room kicks off a series of lectures at Kartchner Caverns State Park:

Saturday
- 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Ranger Peggy Quiatt presents "Bats: Friend or No?"

Tuesday
- 10:30 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., Ranger Ed Moskwa presents "BATS (Bats Are Truly Sensational") and shows how to build a bat house.

Oct 21,
- 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., Ranger Susan Stucker leads a tour of the caves, and discusses the origins of the tiny animals that live there, what they eat, how they get around in the dark.

[Brian Roebuck]

It is great that the bats are tolerant to year round visitation in the rest of the cave. Some species are less tolerant of such things. I am glad the park is dealing with this in the best interests of the bats and still giving us humans the opportunity to see a great cave.