The BatJungle.com opened 2006. It’s one of the BEST tourist attractions in the Monteverde area.

Guided tour takes about 45 minutes

90 live bats of 8 species in an enclosure 17m (57ft) in length

Exhibit features a special ultrasonic microphone that allows visitors to hear bats echolocating (biosonar) and socializing in real time …

photo via Artifacts and Insects at Costa Rica’s 10 Best Museums

Bats are very cool animals, the only mammal with excellent flying ability. They can dodge thin filaments that birds cannot avoid.

Bats are the second largest order of mammals (after the rodents), representing about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with about 1,240 bat species divided into two suborders: the less specialized and largely fruit-eating megabats, or flying foxes, and the highly specialized and echolocating microbats.

About 70% of bat species are insectivores. Most of the rest are frugivores, or fruit eaters. …

… vital ecological roles of pollinating flowers and dispersing fruit seeds …

… economically important, as they consume insect pests, reducing the need for pesticides …

Here’s the really, really BAD news. 😦

White nose syndrome is a condition associated with the deaths of millions of bats in the Eastern United States and Canada. …

The fungus was first discovered in central New York State in 2006 and spread quickly to the entire Eastern US north of Florida; mortality rates of 90–100% have been observed in most caves …

… the lack of bug-eating bats in summer could cause severe problems in the ecosystem of the Eastern forests and on farmland and beyond: nearly all of the bats Continental US and Canada are insectivores …

White-nose syndrome map