Wisconsin Bat Festival at The Domes

Yesterday we attended the Wisconsin Bat Festival at the Mitchell Park Conservatory (The Domes) and had a great time.  They had live bats for display (many of them injured ones) as well as exhibits on everything from rabies to the White-Nose Syndrome, guano, and bat habitats.  They also had quite a few kids activities including art projects and a bat cave.  Besides major bat conservation organizations, also present were the WI DNR, US Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

The highlight for us was the bat talk by Rob Mies.  He was so informative as well as entertaining and introduced us to three different species of bats including one native to Wisconsin.  Here are some photos and videos.

Brown Nose Bat - Largest bat native to Wisconsin

Here is a video of a straw colored fruit bat.

Here is the world's largest bat.

There was a booth outside where they were making bat houses out of defective car parts.  They used Corvette circuit boards for the dividers between chambers and a battery cover as the case for the house.  It was really cool.  Here are a couple of pictures.  

It is also always neat just to walk through each of the domes.  The plant life is so diverse and beautiful.  In the Show Dome they had an Ultra Violet show which was a sea of violet and gorgeous.