Nesting boxes for bats

While the zoo is home to a colony of 170 Egyptian and Rodrigue fruit bats living in the nocturama, its trees and buildings are also appreciated by local bat species looking for shelter to rest during the day or hibernate during the winter.

Of the 34 species of bats recorded in France, 26 frequent the Charente-Maritime department and the zoo staff regularly observe some of their representatives all over the park. All the bats present in our country are protected by law, as are their resting and breeding areas.

In order to encourage the establishment of bats within the park and thus contribute to the protection of these amazing mammals, the only ones capable of flying actively, we have installed a dozen nesting boxes in specific locations identified with the help of representatives of the association Nature Environnement 17, our partner on this project.

Our technical team created several flat wooden nests, generally very popular with fissuricolous bats such as pipistrelles, noctules or murines. In total, a dozen artificial nests have been installed on trees in the park located away from busy areas in order to offer the animals maximum peace and quiet.

Nature Environnement 17 has planned to carry out regular monitoring of the nest boxes to check whether bats have settled there and to identify any species present. By guaranteeing the sustainability of bats on our site and by increasing the number of available spaces favorable to their establishment, we are officially becoming a Refuge for bats, a commitment formalized by the signing of an agreement with Nature Environnement 17 and the desire to support the bat conservation actions carried out by the association on the territory.