This September Champaign-Urbana hosted the first annual Central Illinois Bat Festival! Over 800 bat enthusiasts and bat-curious members of the community gathered at Anita Purves Nature Center and Crystal Lake Park to celebrate and learn about our furry skyward neighbors.
The festival featured a little bit of something for everyone. Educational booths from groups like Champaign County Forest Preserve and UIUC extension happily shared information about bats and handed out stickers and other fun giveaways. Participants were able to become officially certified bat advocates and learned about ways not only to protect these amazing animals but also how to teach others to do the same. Craft stations guided folks of all ages through making felt bat ears (which were proudly sported all over the festival!) and several other art projects. A suite of bat experts were on site to give talks about a variety of captivating topics and answer hard-hitting and silly questions alike. The Urbana Park District’s UrVANa rolled up to join the party along with experts from the Institute for Genomic Biology.
Bat research is usually conducted late at night and only includes highly trained bat experts, but at the festival, everyone was invited to learn how bat research happens with a live mist net demonstration and a guided acoustic bat walk in the evening.
All festival attendees were invited to vote for their favorite Illinois bat species, and ultimately voted for Rafinesque’s big-eared bat as the fan favorite (are we petitioning for state legislation to make official?).
The day was full of fun, inspiration, creativity, learning, and good old-fashioned batty behavior.
Why bats?
Bats sit center stage for animals we like to think about in the spooky months of the year (check back with us on Bat Week starting Oct 28 for more fun bat content!), but historically, bats have had a bad reputation. Fear and misunderstanding lead to both notoriety and poor conservation outcomes for bats. Putting all the cool, sweet, fascinating, and bizarre features of bats under the spotlight helps people of all ages fall in love with these neat little creatures. Many species of bats have seen population declines both from habitat loss and an invasive disease called White-nose syndrome, and by learning about them and spreading the word we can help support their recovery!
Photos by the Central Illinois Planning Committee