When the bats living across from Lake Alice fly home every night, they will soon have a new place to rest.
UF’s Environmental Health and Safety Department started construction in December on a new “Bat Barn” next to the two existing structures, where more than 350,000 bats live on campus. One of the buildings, the Bat House, is deteriorating from the weight of the bats, the build up of guano — or bat feces — and urine-soaked wood, said Paul Ramey, the Florida Museum of Natural History assistant director of marketing.
“The same design is being used; they’re just using better materials for the inside and outside,” he said.
The new Bat Barn will be modeled after the current barn, which was built in 2010, Ramey said. Like the current barn, the new building will have an open floor that allows for more guano to fall to the ground, preventing collapse and deterioration.
The Bat House was built in 1991 and has hosted the colony since 1995. Although the new barn is expected to be completed by the end of February, the house will remain open throughout the mating season and until the bats move to the new building, said Bill Properzio, the director of UF’s Environmental Health and Safety Department.
Properzio said department employees cannot force the bats to move. When the original house was built, the bats living in campus buildings took years to settle into the structure. It only took a few months for the barn to be occupied, however.
“There’s not a process you can follow,” he said. “(The buildings are) right in close proximity so we hope that we can duplicate that.”
Bats emerge from the Bat House (right) and the Bat Barn (center) Tuesday evening after sunset. The new bat barn (left), which is currently under construction, will eventually replace the Bat House.
