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Twelve species of bats have been recorded within Deer Cave, including the colony of Wrinkled-Lipped Bats estimated to number between 2.5 and 3.5 million individuals. While you wait in the Bat Observatory for the nightly flight of bats to begin you can watch the secret life of millions of bats on MULU BAT CAM a remote controlled, closed circuit TV system which takes you into the dark recesses of the cave to observe the bat 'live,' up close and sometimes a bit personal. Expectation builds as the sun moves towards the horizon and the Bat Hawks take up their roost on the cliff face, waiting for the first of the millions of bats appear. Each evening the bats gather at the cave entrance in large ring-shaped formations, circling higher and higher up the cliff face before moving out cross the rainforest in spiralling ribbons. It has been estimated that nightly each bat consumes between five and ten grams of flying insects. This means that 3 million bats will return in the morning to deposit a huge amount of guano in the cave and provide a unique ecosystem, home to millions of insects and their predators. The bats leave the cave on most evenings between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm but on rare occasions do not leave at all. Even more rarely they sometimes leave as early as 4.30 pm. The return trip to Park HQ is a wonderful time to move through the forest, listening to the calls of the frogs and insects, often seeing fireflies and stick insects.
THE BAT EXODUS
Twelve species of bats have been recorded within Deer Cave, including the colony of Wrinkled-Lipped Bats estimated to number between 2.5 and 3.5 million individuals. While you wait in the Bat Observatory for the nightly flight of bats to begin you can watch the secret life of millions of bats on MULU BAT CAM a remote controlled, closed circuit TV system which takes you into the dark recesses of the cave to observe the bat 'live,' up close and sometimes a bit personal. Expectation builds as the sun moves towards the horizon and the Bat Hawks take up their roost on the cliff face, waiting for the first of the millions of bats appear. Each evening the bats gather at the cave entrance in large ring-shaped formations, circling higher and higher up the cliff face before moving out cross the rainforest in spiralling ribbons. It has been estimated that nightly each bat consumes between five and ten grams of flying insects. This means that 3 million bats will return in the morning to deposit a huge amount of guano in the cave and provide a unique ecosystem, home to millions of insects and their predators. The bats leave the cave on most evenings between 5.30 pm and 6.30 pm but on rare occasions do not leave at all. Even more rarely they sometimes leave as early as 4.30 pm. The return trip to Park HQ is a wonderful time to move through the forest, listening to the calls of the frogs and insects, often seeing fireflies and stick insects.
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