(source: Sme - Ján Krošlák)
Visitors taking part in the Night of Bats, on September 12, got the chance to meet bats up close and get to know them as useful and likeable animals. The event took place, as in previous years, in the Jasovská Cave, not far from Košice.
“We want to introduce to visitors the bat as a mysterious animal – as people usually perceived it to be – and, after trapping it, to show them how nice an animal it is, what are its features and positives, and that it makes no sense to fear it,” Miroslav Fulín of the Eastern-Slovak Museum / Východoslovenské múzeum (VSM), which co-organised the event, told the TASR newswire. The Night began at 18:00 in the entrance space of the cave. Big-screen projections presented interesting facts about these flying mammals, and later several animals were caught in a net and shown to visitors.
“We also used the opportunity to demonstrate a newer method of researching bats with an ultra-sound detector which analyses the voices of bats. Thanks to their voices, we can determine what kind of bat flew over our heads,” Fulín explained. The goal is to make people lose their fear. “Prejudices rooted maybe in early childhood or in some fairy-tales need to be busted, as this is an animal which is irreplaceable and, if we handle it aggressively, we can lose it completely in the wild,” he added. The event organised by the museum, the national park Slovenský kras / Slovak Karst, the cave’s administration, and the Society for Protection of Bats in Slovakia was free of charge and lasted for about two hours.
