Kenya: Mount Suswa Conservancy – Bats at Mount Suswa
The true adventure in the dark lava caves on Mt Suswa was to find the cave with rare and endangered Large-eared Free-tailed bats (Otomops martiensseni). They roost deep inside the caves during the day and fly out at night to feed on insects. This was a true Indiana Jones-style adventure – you follow your headlight, navigating narrow passageways in a completely dark cave. The deeper you go, the stronger the smell of guano becomes, eventually reaching intolerable level, making your eyes water and your thirst starting to choke. The ground is covered with guano, meters deep, and cockroaches are feeding and scattering around it. The air is filled with tiny bugs that also feed on guano. But it’s worth it – the ceiling is covered with thousands and thousands of chirping and squeaking bats, even some baby bats here and there! The bats are clustered very close together and the deeper you go into the cave the lower the ceiling becomes and you can almost touch them. Beyond amazing and once-in-a-lifetime seeing bats so close! The bat species is very rare, this is the only colony in Kenya and is likely the largest of this species in the world, several other colonies are know is South Africa and Angola, the bats are very secretive and typically live in narrow and deep caves or lava tubes.
