Come Hang With BATS
Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats
Exhibit Opens February 13, 1999
Live Guests Make Special Appearance March 20, 27, April 10, 2:30 p.m.

SAN FRANCISCO (December 1998) — Often associated with horror movies, vampires and caves, bats have a bad rap. Few people understand that these unsightly creatures are actually beneficial to humans. "Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats" opening at the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park on February 13, dispels some of the myths surrounding bats, describes their ecological importance, and offers a fun, interactive learning environment that allows kids and adults to see the world from a bat’s point of view.

Visitors will enter the exhibit through a gargoyle flanked neo-Gothic castle in which everything appears upside-down. Children can crawl through a cave or hang like a bat. An interactive rain forest provides a realistic look at bat habitats, echolocation, pollination, diet, flight and conservation. Visitors can experience hearing the way a bat hears using giant bat ears nearly 20 times their actual size. Additional displays include a baby bat nursery, bat portrait photography, and a recreated curator’s office filled with specimens, models of oversized bat heads, bones, and comparisons of bat and human anatomies.

The exhibit demonstrates that bats really can see, do not get caught in hair, and do not catch criminals. However they do catch bugs – a little brown bat can catch 1,200 mosquito-sized insects in just one hour.
Do not miss the chance to explore these winged wonders live during springbreak. "Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats" will be at the Academy of Sciences until May 2, 1999.