University of Florida Bat Houses - Gainesville, FL
Posted by: 
Rock Chalk
N 29° 38.634 W 082° 21.770
17R E 368085 N 3280103
Located at the University of Florida, these are said to be the world’s largest occupied bat houses.
Waymark Code: WM19MCC
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 03/18/2024
Views: 11
The houses are managed by the University of Florida and are designed to house about 750,000 bats. Occupancy varies throughout the year, but it is estimated that there are 450,000-500,000 bats in the colony living in these houses.
UF’s bat house tradition dates back to 1987, when a fire destroyed Johnson Hall, where a colony of bats had occupied the attic. The bats moved to nearby athletic stadiums on campus, where they became a nuisance.
The university’s athletic association decided to build a structure that would allow the bats to be undisturbed, away from people. The original bat house was completed in 1991. In September of that year, several thousand bats were captured from the stadiums and released in the new bat house. Unfortunately, the next night, the bats left the house and nested in other places, leaving the bat house vacant for more than three years.
However, in 1995, bats moved into the house permanently and the colony grew. It grew too much, as it turned out, because the weight of the bats caused the internal structure of the house to collapse in 2009. The bat house’s internal structure was rebuilt and the first bat "barn" opened in 2010. So, for seven years, there stood the original bat house and a bat barn. A second barn was finished in 2017 to replace the original bat house, which was demolished in 2022 ahead of Hurricane Ian.
Number of Bat Boxes on Property: 2
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