Pay tribute to the winged creatures that play a vital role in the Great Lakes ecosystem. Get batty 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 26, 2015 for another Great Lakes Bat Festival at Cranbrook Institute of Science.
Hourly programs feature live animal meet-and-greets and demonstrations – featuring Malayan flying foxes, straw-colored fruit bats, Jamaican leaf-nosed and big-brown bats. Expert bat lecturers dispel bat myths and help visitors understand the engineering behind the critters’ habitats.
Kids can “Be a Bat Scientist” and see what it’s like to research wild bats by catching stuffed animals in a net, then recording the stuffed bat’s weight, length and other features. Or “Be an Animal Keeper” and see what a day in the life of a bat keeper involves, including feeding the animals, administering medicine and cleaning enclosures.
Then, the entire family can visit the Garden for Wildlife display that demonstrates how to keep your backyard night-critter friendly and why it’s important and beneficial to the environment.
Start making a difference onsite by building bat houses out of repurposed GM Volt battery covers with the U.S. Forest Service. Each house built goes toward the U.S. Forest Service’s efforts at promoting healthy habitats in our national forests. But it’s great practice for revamping your own backyard. Bat houses and kits will be available for purchase, and now’s the perfect time to install them – the weather’s still relatively warm and when the bats return in spring from hibernation, they’ll have places to sojourn.
Other interactive exhibits include a pollinator activity, an echolocation demonstration, an exploration on Michigan caves and the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Mobile Learning Center.
Batman didn’t companionate these night fliers for sheer delight! Come out to Cranbrook Institute of Science to creatively learn why bats serve as advantageous neighbors – while immersing in oodles of fun activities, too.
The festival is $15/person and include entrance into the museum as well as the opening day of the exhibit BATS: Superheroes of the Night. It runs 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015.
To learn more about the 2015 Great Lakes Bat Festival, head to the Metro Parent calendar.
