Bats, bats, bats!

On Sunday we headed out to Centennial Park for something called the Batwatchers Breakfast. I learned about this program a few weeks ago and bought tickets. It's put on by the park to raise awareness about the flying foxes in Sydney (some people don't like them, apparently!) and to give people a chance to see them as they rest for the day. Oh and you also get breakfast!

We met at the learning center to hear about the bats living at Centennial Park. The last time they did a count, there were around 5,000!

However, the best part of the learning center lecture was that it coincided with training for wildlife carer volunteers. All of these people (mainly middle-aged women) were there with cages with various animals in them. So we took a few extra minutes to meet some of the rehabilitating animals! There were a couple baby bushtail possums, which were sooo cute!

And of course some bats!

You can really tell how big the bats are in these pictures. It was fascinating how friendly they where and they really liked interacting with their carers! We learned that they're one of the smartest animals - some scientists think they are almost as smart as primates. One of the women told us that she had to start putting a padlock on the bat cage because they had learned how to open the door. So amazing!

After we hung out with the animals inside, it was time to go check them out in the wild! We headed out into the park and into a swamp. It was super muddy because of all the rain we've been having, but it was also very cool to be in the middle of a swamp in the middle of the city!

The bats were all camped out in the tops of the trees hanging out in the sun. There were hundreds of them! It was amazing!!!

All of these clumps are bats hanging out

Before we left the park, we got our breakky from a food truck and then had a nice stroll back through the park to the car.

I just loved seeing the bats. And next time I'm taking my real camera!

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