Bat maze in the Desertium animal park/photo: playplus
Were you looking for a fruit bat and couldn't find it?
A new bat maze that opened in Mevrav - the desert animal park in Be'er Sheva - offers three tracks that are intertwined and spread over three floors. The bat maze is located in the bat enclosure of the Desertium, which serves as a shelter for injured wild animals that cannot be returned to the wild. In the compound there are 34 fruit bats that were transferred to a desert from the A.T.L.F. association. The bats that arrived were damaged and cannot be returned to nature.
The bat maze is a sound navigation game. The children must follow and remember the sound of the bat played to them at the entrance to their maze route, follow it by hearing around the maze while ignoring other sounds, until the correct exit according to the sound played to them at the entrance. The game simulates the player as a bat that navigates through space using its sense of hearing. The network maze spans three floors with three interwoven tracks, one of which is an accessible track. The facility is suitable for ages 4 and up.
Lamps and a heating wall were placed for the bats
"In the Madbarium, we built a special enclosure customized for the different and complex needs and the different disabilities of the bats," says Ira Elfraev, director of the avian department at the park. "Since the bats that arrived cannot fly, special ramps had to be built in the compound so that the bats could reach higher places. In addition, since they do not fly, they have more difficulty maintaining body heat, so heating lamps and a heating wall were placed for the bats to cling to when it is cold. Bats have a hidden backyard, where they can go out and feel the wind, see the moon and get some fresh air whenever they choose."
According to her, the complex has a one-sided mirror, and the visitors can see the bats, but the bats do not see them, so they are not stressed by being exposed to people. In addition, there is a separating rail so that people do not come into direct contact with the structure of the bats. "The group of bats in the madbarium consists of only males, in order to prevent a situation in which the females will become pregnant and it will be difficult for them to carry it. The care staff has been trained in the care and acclimatization of the new bats in the madbarium," she adds.
Michal Ben Zvi, a joint holistic therapist at Medbarium and the ATLF association: "The ATLF association advocates that fruit bats in captivity should not be kept in captivity without justification and fought to release them. We were happy to find out that the team at Medbarium advocates the same approach and that is how it was created An amazing collaboration to find a suitable home for 34 bats that were in the A.T.L.F association with various disabilities that unfortunately cannot return to nature. This is a group of disabled fruit bats, unable to fly and unable to return to the wild, some with various limb amputations. That is why they need an enclosure that is specially adapted to their livelihood. The ATLF association aims to help, treat, rehabilitate and return to nature fruit bats from all over Israel, which have been found injured, sick, orphaned or emaciated."