Quick question: What is a group of bats called? answer below in bold
A large number of gray bats were discovered on a recent cave tour in Springfield's parks and caused the cancellation of the remaining tours. As reported in the 09/08/08 Springfield News-Leader newspaper, Outdoor Initiatives staff member Scott Hootman states "Sure enough we got about 300 feet into the cave and there was a very big population -- I'm guessing 1,000 to 1,500 bats right above the stream." The tours, given in boats, have been cancelled for now.
Most cave tours are sponsored in the late summer to early fall to avoid problems with distrubing the bats. Staff at the the Rock Bridge State Park sponsors several tours beginning in August and ending in early October. Complete tour information may be found at the RBSP website. If you haven't been in the Devil's Ice Box, it's certainly something you should do before leaving Columbia. A cave tour experience into the Devil's Ice Box can be found at the KC Grotto website.
As indicated on the Missouri Department of Conservation's website on gray bats, human distrubance can cause the bats to lose 20-30 days of stored fat greatly increasing mortality among the colony.
The gray bat is listed ENDANGERED by the Missouri Department of Conservation and ENDANGERED by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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