Lubee Bat Conservancy is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...

. The organization was founded in 1989 by Luis F. Bacardi as a center for the research, conservation, and breeding of endangered animals; it later narrowed its focus solely to

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

s, particularly

megabat Megabats constitute the Family (biology), family Pteropodidae of the Order (biology), order Chiroptera. They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genus, genera ''Acerodon'' and ''Pteropus''—Pteropus, flyin ...

s. Lubee Bat Conservancy is an

Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums (AAZPA), is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aqu ...

-certified institution.

History

Lubee Bat Conservancy has its roots in an organization founded in 1989, the Lubee Foundation, Inc. The Lubee Foundation was created by Luis F. Bacardi of the

Bacardi Bacardi Limited ( , , ) is the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world. Originally known for its Bacardí brand of white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Facund ...

spirits company. The name "Lubee" was derived from the name of "Luis Bacardi". In the early years of the organization, it was home to several animal species other than bats, such as

parrot Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

s, and

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

es. The Lubee Foundation was used as a temporary holding facility for animals on their way to

Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division, it is the largest theme park in the worl ...

. The Bacardi family and business had a special interest in bats, as bats were the inspiration for its logo. When Luis Bacardi died on 12 September 1991, the Lubee Foundation shifted emphasis to focus on bats, rehoming its non-bat species.

Facilities

Lubee Bat Conservancy is situated on a ranch, approximately north of the city of

. It has facilities designed for the maintenance of captive bats, with temperature-controlled areas for roosting and outdoor flight enclosures. It also has medical equipment to manage the bats' needs, such as an examination room equipped for

anesthesia Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical or veterinary purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prev ...

, isolation areas, and a recovery room.

Species housed

Lubee Bat Conservancy is home to more than 200 megabats of several species. Megabat species housed at Lubee include: *

Straw-coloured fruit bat The straw-coloured fruit bat (''Eidolon helvum'') is a large fruit bat that is the most widely distributed of all the African megabats. It is quite common throughout its area ranging from the southwestern Arabian Peninsula, across forest and sava ...

(''Eidolon helvum'') *

Egyptian fruit bat The Egyptian fruit bat or Egyptian rousette (''Rousettus aegyptiacus'') is a species of megabat that occurs in Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Indian subcontinent. It is one of three ''Rousettus'' species with an African-Malag ...

(''Rousettus aegyptiacus'') * Gray-headed flying fox (''Pteropus poliocephalus'') *

Indian flying fox The Indian flying fox (''Pteropus medius''), also known as the greater Indian fruit bat, is a species of flying fox native to the Indian subcontinent. It is one of the largest bats in the world. It is of interest as a disease vector, as it is ca ...

(''Pteropus giganteus'') *

Small flying fox The small flying fox, island flying fox or variable flying fox (''Pteropus hypomelanus'') is a species of flying fox in the family Pteropodidae. It is found in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines ...

(''Pteropus hypomelanus'') Lubee Bats

Large flying fox The large flying fox (''Pteropus vampyrus'', formerly ''Pteropus giganteus''), also known as the greater flying fox, Malayan flying fox, Malaysian flying fox, large fruit bat, kalang, or kalong, is a southeast Asian species of megabat in the fam ...

(''Pteropus vampyrus'') *

Lesser short-nosed fruit bat The lesser short-nosed fruit bat (''Cynopterus brachyotis'') is a species of megabat within the family Pteropodidae. It is a small bat that lives in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It weighs between , and measures . It occurs in many types of habi ...

(''Cynopterus brachyotis'') * Little golden-mantled flying fox (''Pteropus pumilus'') *

Rodrigues flying fox The Rodrigues flying fox or Rodrigues fruit bat (''Pteropus rodricensis'') is a species of bat in the family Pteropodidae, the flying foxes or fruit bats. It is endemic to Rodrigues, an island in the Indian Ocean belonging to Mauritius. Its nat ...

(''Pteropus rodricensis'') *

Spectacled flying fox The spectacled flying fox (''Pteropus conspicillatus''), also known as the spectacled fruit bat, is a megabat that lives in Australia's north-eastern regions of Queensland. It is also found in New Guinea and on the offshore islands including Wood ...

(''Pteropus conspicillatus'') With the dissolution of the Organization for Bat Conservation (OBC) in early 2018, Lubee announced that they would take on 17 of OBC's bats, including two species of

microbat Microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). Bats have long been differentiated into Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera, based on their size, the use of echolocation by the Microchiroptera an ...

: *

Big brown bat The big brown bat (''Eptesicus fuscus'') is a species of vesper bat distributed widely throughout North America, the Caribbean, and the northern portion of South America. It was first described as a species in 1796. Compared to other microbats ...

(''Eptesicus fuscus'') *

Evening bat The evening bat (''Nycticeius humeralis'') is a species of bat in the vesper bat family that is native to North America. Hunting at night, they eat beetles, moths, and other flying insects. Description The evening bat is a small bat weighin ...

(''Nycticeius humeralis'')

References

External links

Official website
{{Greater Gainesville 1989 establishments in Florida Conservation and environmental foundations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Florida Tourist attractions in Gainesville, Florida Wildlife conservation organizations