Registration for the popular Selman Bat Watches, hosted by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, will open May 29.
The weekend watches will be held at the Selman Bat Cave WMA, where Mexican free-tailed bats congregate each summer to give birth. Each night the bats leave the cave to hunt for flying insects, forming a ribbon over Bat Watch participants.
“Eight watches will be offered this year, beginning Friday, July 6,” said Melynda Hickman, bat watch coordinator and wildlife biologist with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “The nightly emergence typically lasts just over one hour, and is incredible to watch.”
Admission to the Selman Bat Watch is $14 for adults and $8 for children. Children must be 8 or older to attend a watch.
Hopeful viewers must print, complete and mail their registration form to the Selman Bat Watch c/o Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, P.O. Box 53465, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73152 between May 29 and June 8, 2018. Only mailed registration forms postmarked on or before June 8 will be accepted. Successful registrants will receive email confirmation on June 13 and an information packet in the mail. Families or groups should send one registration form.
The Wildlife Department purchased the Selman Bat Cave in 1995 in an effort to conserve one of the four known maternity caves in Oklahoma and to increase public appreciation of Mexican free-tailed bats and other bat species.