Natural History Galleries

Brave the New Bat Cave

NOW OPEN
Level 2, Philosophers’ Walk Wing

Brave the New Bat Cave - bigger, scarier and better than ever!

Be among the first to see the new Bat Cave. With more bats, animatronics and atmospheric sights and sounds, kids will love discovering the real stories behind these mysterious creatures of the night. Highlights include an audio-visual show that explores cave formation, how bats use echolocation and more, and a spectacular dramatization of bats in flight during a nightly exodus for food.

Originally opened in 1988, the ROM’s Bat Cave is a realistic portrayal of the St. Clair Cave in Jamaica, based on ROM fieldwork at the site. The new Bat Cave draws on this original ROM research as well as recent findings from a return trip to Jamaica in February 2010.

Podcasts

Bat Cave: Underground
February 5, 2010
ROM Video Producer, Elaisha Stokes, visits Jamaica's St. Clair Cave. A Toronto team from went to Jamaica in January 2010 to gather footage of the inhabitants of the underground structure in preparation of the opening of the new bat cave.

Video Podcast (14MB, 2min)
Written Transcript (PDF)

Bats!
October 06, 2009
Learn about Burton Lim's, Assistant Curator of Mammalogy, Bat research in Guyana and around the world. Burton is an expert on all types of bats and studies their biodiversity and evolution.

Video Podcast (13.2MB, 1m 54s)
Written Transcript (PDF)

Bat Cave
September 06, 2006
Technician Liliane Lortie on the appeal of bats and experiencing the Bat Cave

Video Podcast (14 MB, 2m 25s)
Written Transcript (PDF)