Rethinking a Bat Box
Bat Conservation International helped popularize bat boxes decades ago. But the Florida bonneted bat is not like most bats. It is bigger, heavier, and has long wings that make tight spaces difficult to use. So the team at the Miami Bat Lab started over. These boxes are large enough for long wings to enter and exit easily. They have two chambers instead of one, giving bats space to move and choose the best spot inside. They are built to survive hurricane-force winds and heavy rain.
Just as important, they create a stable internal temperature. Since Florida bonneted bats do not migrate or hibernate, they need shelter that protects them year-round as the climate grows hotter and storms grow stronger.
Aside from these considerations, Dr. Ridgley shares that they designed a new kind of bat box built for strength, resilience, and comfort and rethought where to place bat boxes given the Bonneted bat’s predators. “The wildlife that mainly interacts with the Florida bonneted bat would be rat snakes, raccoons, rats, and owls. Rat snakes, rats, and raccoons can climb into a roost and prey on the bats while they are roosting during the day. We install predator guards at the bases of roosts to help prevent access to the roost. So selection of an artificial roost has to take in predator access into the equation. That is why we don’t install bat houses on trees but prefer free-standing poles.“
Three weeks after the first box went up at Zoo Miami, bats had already moved in.
Watching Success Take Flight
Over time, the results surprised even the scientists.
Eight years after installation, ten custom bat boxes around Zoo Miami sheltered more than 100 Florida bonneted bats. That made it the largest known population in Miami-Dade County and the second largest in the entire range of the species.
Some boxes held as many as fifteen bats at once. The animals were not just using the boxes. They were thriving in them.
The success spread beyond the zoo. In 2025, more than one hundred bats were recorded using 24 additional boxes installed in other locations by the lab.
What started as an experiment became a model for saving a species.
Science Meets Community
The Miami Bat Lab does more than build shelters. It builds understanding.
Through a program called Bat Ambassadors, scientists and educators work with local communities. They teach people why bats matter, how to live alongside them, how to plant bat gardens that grow insects for the bats, and how residents can help protect this rare species.
Community members learn how to support bat-friendly spaces and even how to help monitor bat boxes. Conservation stops being something distant and becomes something personal.
When people understand a species, they are more likely to protect it.
