The world’s oldest zoo is building a gigantic bat enclosure soaring more than 25 feet high as part of a major overhaul of its rainforest house.
The project is underway at Tiergarten Schonbrunn in Vienna, Austria, with details released on 19th February.
The zoo said the rainforest house is being fundamentally renovated after 20 years and will reopen this year with a new concept designed to highlight the ecological importance of the rainforest.
A tropical experience area is being created despite winter conditions outside.
Among the new animal additions will be endangered Chinese pangolins, currently kept in only two European zoos. Next to them, visitors will encounter what the zoo described as a gigantic bat enclosure rising more than eight metres (26 feet) high.
Zoo director Dr Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck said visitors will experience the rainforest at night, in moonlight and mist, looking out over a body of water directly into the habitat where blossom bats can be observed.
In this section of the rainforest house, day and night will be deliberately reversed so that the nocturnal animals are active during visiting hours.
The steel and concrete shell of the enclosure has already been completed, showing its scale.
The blossom bats are currently housed in the zoo’s terrarium house ahead of their move.
In the South American rainforest, they are considered important pollinators. Visiting up to 1,000 flowers per night to feed on nectar and pollen while pollinating numerous plant species.
Curator Anton Weissenbacher said visitors will be able to observe the bats’ behaviour at close range.
He said the animals are about the size of mice but have tongues one and a half times the length of their bodies, and will hover at special nectar stations in a similar way to hummingbirds before disappearing back into the darkness.
The zoo has also launched a fundraising campaign for the project. For a donation of EUR 100, supporters can have their name displayed on the exterior wall of the new rainforest house for five years, with proceeds contributing to the completion of the new habitats for bats, pangolins and other species.
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