Like a Bat out of Alabama
A few weeks ago we visited Sauta Cave to watch bats leave the cave in a spectacle which could be called the Carlsbad Caverns of the East Coast. While everyone else were decked out in there ponchos to avoid teh guanno falling... we opted to be brave and ignore the need. As night fell we could begin to hear the flapping of wings with the start of many bats forth coming. As we actually walked to the very mouth of the cave... thousands of bats flew out overhead. The danger of a guanno shower increased... but I only had one impact.
Sauta Cave National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve one of the greatest wildlife spectacles in eastern North America. Each summer the cave is home to hundreds of thousands of endangered Gray Bats. Although a few bats use the cave throught the year it is during the summer months when members hit their peak.
Gray bats were listed as endangered in 1976 after studies showed the population had decreased by 50 perecent. This decrease is due to heavy disturbance by humans on their environments. Sauta Cave is also home to the Indiana bat also endangered.
Each evening during the summer the bats leave the cave to forage along the Tennessee River. Peak flight is in the early summer with 300,000 to 400,000 bats exiting the cave.
This is an amazing site and you should plan to experience this when in the area. Be there at dusk and enjoy the show.
Comments
When the first poo dropped, I would have been outta there like a bat out of hades.
Posted by: Murf | August 18, 2006 01:42 PM
"I felt the poop!" - Kids saying they were getting pooped on.
That was really awesome! Too bad it was so dark it was hard to grasp how many were there with the camera. Everyone should see this though. Really spectacular. :) Glad C.J. let us stop;)
Posted by: kristen | August 21, 2006 05:17 PM
Spiders, Bugs, mice, among other things.... I can deal with all of them. But not bats!!!They are too much for me...so I'll take everyone's word on this and won't go myself :)
Posted by: Becky | August 22, 2006 09:03 PM