#lubee bat concervancy

[musings-from-an-elder-goth]

Happy International Bat Appreciation Day!

#international bat appreciation day #Lubee Bat Concervancy #creaturesfromelsewhere #musings from an elder goth #Youtube

[creaturesfromelsewhere]

If you ever want to hang out with giant bats while visiting Florida, Lubee Bat Concervancy is the place to go.

#giant bats #bats #flying foxes #fruit bats #florida bats #darkly inclined #florida gothic #goth #keep florida weird #creaturesfromelsewhere #Youtube

[creaturesfromelsewhere]

The Florida Bat Festival

"Yes, Father. I Shall Become A Bat” -Batman, Year One

The Florida Bat Festival has the unique and amazing power to always elicit the exact same response from Floridians when they first learn of it: "We have a what festival?" Of course, as the bat is the collective spirit animal of goths the world over, we know. Many of us make the pilgrimage each year to the wilds outside Gainesville and brave the heat and sun to pay respects to our fellow creatures of the night. The Lubee Bat Conservancy, where the fest is held, has a proper cauldron of bats (a group of bats is called a cauldron), so bat lovers will not be disappointed.

Unlike the standard Saturday tours at Lubee which are quite expensive, entry to the Bat Fest is a paltry $8 for adults and $5 for children. If you wish to partake in the beer garden, its $28. This small fee allows you to walk through the bat grotto as often as you like, where Lubee's huge bat houses are clustered and you get to see dozens of giant fruit bats from all around the world. These angels of the night are truly magnificent, even when sleeping. Every so often one will spread it's wings and yawn or perhaps scratch an itch, and the performance is goth af. Unlike during the pricey Saturday tours, people are not allowed inside the cages, but you still get a good view of all the bats from walking down the center aisle of the grotto. The double mesh of the cages plus the dense crowd makes photography challenging, so bring plenty of patience and practice suppressing murderous rages. Best viewing is from 10 am to about noon - huge quantiles of food are hung in the cages to encourage the bats to a feeding frenzy, but after they've binged, the combination of mid-day heat and food-coma puts them into full sleep mode.

After viewing the bats, which is understandably everyone's first stop, you can turn your attention to the fest part of Bat Fest. This is a pretty standard collection of vendor tents, food trucks, and a beer garden. The beer garden also features live music, and while I've never seen a darkwave or post punk band playing, sometimes there's a Celtic band, and that's about as good as the music will get since the attendance is overwhelmingly normals who prefer elevator music. The food trucks are good some years and not-so-good others, so I usually bring a pocket snack in case I can't find something I like. As with the food trucks, the vender tents vary year to year and range from "Why the hell is this here?" to "Shut up and take my money!"

If you're into bat merchandise, you and your money will soon part company. Bat shirts, bat bags, bat plushies, bat art, bat this & bat that will fight a full cage match to win the hearts & minds of your dollar bills. Oh, and always bring paper money. Lubee is far enough outside Gainesville that service is iffy and some venders can't make enough of an internet connection to take your card while others have better connections and cards work just fine. It never fails, however, that the fuzzy neon pink, yellow and orange bat throw pillow you simply must have can only be bought from the frazzled merchant who can't get connection, so you'd better have cash.

You'll also find plenty of lectures and general info on bats, both local and exotic, so come prepared to learn everything you ever wanted to know about bats, but were afraid to ask.

As Beetlejuice would say, "And bring the little 'pards, too!" Your darklings will find all manor of standard fest amusements such as face painting, photo stands, and a myriad of bat toys to make them pledge, "Please mom, just buy me this one thing and I'll never ask for anything else ever again - I promise!"

But my fav part of the Florida Bat Fest (after the bats, of course) has to be the fashion wars. Much as everyone breaks out their best hats at the Kentucky Derby, everyone busts out their best bat clothing for Bat Fest.

The amount and variation of bat themed dresses, shirts, and accessories is quite dazzling and never fails to bring a creepy smile to this elder goth's face.

Wondering if you should wear that bat backpack you got off of Etsy a few years ago? Is this the proper forum to don that bat themed hat? Should you dig out that bat winged purse and show it off? Yes, yes, and oh hell yes.

When the Bat Fest finally shuts down at 5 pm, don't think your day with the bats is over just yet. Now you'll need to make your way to the highlight of the day - the University of Florida Bat Houses about a half-hour south in the heart of Gainesville. Sunset this time of year is usually around 6:50 pm, so you even have time to grab a quick dinner if you'd like but be aware there is limited parking around the UF Bat houses, so err on the side of arriving early. Watching 500,000 bats departing their lairs for deeds best done in darkness is a sight one does not soon forget...

creaturesfromelsewhere 10-24-2021 🦇🖤🦇

#lubee bat concervancy #Florida Bat Festival #Florida Bat Fest #darkly inclined #florida gothic #southern gothic #goth #goth af #gothic #goth girls #gothic fashion #goth style #bats #fruit bats #florida bats #creaturesfromelsewhere #dark humor #Youtube

[creaturesfromelsewhere]

Florida's Nightwings

“Bats frighten me. It’s time my enemies share my dread.”  - Bruce Wayne

Unlike Bruce Wayne, bats bring me great joy.  I smile whenever these tiny friends (fiends?) bid me whispered greetings upon silenced wings.  But I know well that I am an anomaly.   Die Fledermaus are considered harbingers of doom amongst the unenlightened and torch-wielding villagers. Popular culture bestows upon angels the wings of eagles while demons are 'condemned' to suffer the leathery wings of bats.  Count my company amongst the demons - angels make poor companions when club-hopping.

Florida has been blessed with 13 resident species of bats and a further 7 species that show up from time to time - truly, and embarrassment of riches. In Gainesville, the University of Florida boasts the largest occupied bat houses in the world. At dust, a staggering half-a-million bats set forth from these lairs on their nightly quest to eat as many insects as possible before the next sunrise compels them to return to the roost. The sight of such massive cauldrons of bats (a flock of bats is called a cauldron - isn't that grand?) setting forth at dusk is one of the dark wonders of the natural world and I strongly suggest it be added to everyone's bucket (of blood) list.

Florida has something of a love / hate relationship with bats. The vapid beach dwellers hate mosquitos slightly more than they hate bats. Thus bats have been begrudgingly granted a modicum of respect based solely upon their ability to control the population of those tiny vampires. The result of this peculiar compromise is that one sometimes sees bat houses installed within the mansions of the well-to-do or even in the centers of towns, like in DeLand, Florida, for example.

I could go on and on about Florida's winged exterminators, but a blog isn't the appropriate forum. If you want the authoritative source, check out Bats of Florida by Cynthia S. Marks & George E. Marks. It is the exhaustive grimoire upon the subject and my personal copy is well read & well worn. One peculiar puzzle is why some bat houses are eagerly occupied while others are ignored. Seems we goths are fussy in our abodes regardless of species.

But wait - there's more. No visit to Florida would be complete without a tour of the Lubee Bat Conservancy. This is a place where you can get inside huge cages with giant bats - and feed them. I'm not kidding.

You may be goth, but you'll never be I've-been-inside-a-huge-cage-feeding-giant-bats goth until you've visited Lubee. Of course, these giant fruit bats are not native to Florida. They do usually have native Florida bats in rehab there, while the exotics are there for breeding and conservation purposes - no plans to release them since they'd be an invasive and our winters are too cold for them anyway (!!!). The fruit bats are adorable, friendly, and would love to have you feed them. And since Lubee is just north of Gainesville, so you can catch both of these amazing bat attractions in a single afternoon and still have your evening free for feasting upon the blood of those pesky torch-wielding villagers.

CreaturesFromElsewhere 4/10/2021

#bats #florida gothic #lubee bat concervancy #gainsville bat houses #bats of florida #darkly inclined #goth #southern gothic #eco goth