Giant Bat Facility Under Construction at Vienna Zoo

(eap) While winter still prevails in Europe, a piece of rainforest is already taking shape at Tiergarten Schönbrunn (Vienna Zoo). After 20 years, the zoo’s “Rainforest House” is being completely renovated and will reopen this year with a new concept. A tropical immersive world is being created, designed to convey the ecological importance of the rainforest in an impressive way. Among the major new animal attractions are the critically endangered Chinese pangolins, which are currently on display in only two European zoos (in Leipzig & Prague). Right next door, guests can look forward to another highlight attraction: a bat facility more than eight meters high, kept in darkness so that the nocturnal animals can be experienced in action during zoo opening hours.

© Foto: Daniel Zupanc “We experience the rainforest at night here. In the moonlight, surrounded by drifting mist, we look across a body of water directly into the rainforest and can observe the fascinating blossom bats,” explains Zoo Director Dr. Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck. The steel and concrete shell of the structure already gives an impression of the impressive dimensions of the new bat facility. At present, the blossom bats – whose range extends from the southern United States to northern Argentina – are housed in the zoo’s “Terrarium House”. They are ready to move into their new home soon. In the South American tropics, their species ranks among the most important pollinators. Each night, blossom bats visit up to 1,000 flowers to feed on nectar and pollen, pollinating numerous plant species in the process.

“In the Rainforest House, visitors will be able to observe this fascinating behaviour at close range. Blossom bats are only about the size of mice, yet their tongue is one and a half times as long as their body. At special nectar feeders, they will hover in the air – similar to hummingbirds – take in food, and then disappear again into the darkness of the rainforest,” says Curator Anton Weissenbacher. ■