Take the mystery of bats out of the dark in an exhibit opening Jan. 15 at the Virginia Living Museum. Turn your thinking about bats upside down in “Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats” Jan. 15 – May 8 at the Virginia Living Museum, Newport News.

The 2,500 square foot exhibition by Evergreen Exhibitions dispels popular misconceptions about bats, describes their ecological importance and gives visitors an appreciation of the true wonders of the bat world.
The exhibit includes special effects, multi-sensory interactive displays, a Gothic castle and environmentally lifelike settings.

MYTHS REVEALED
Blood-sucking, blind, squeaky creatures that get tangled in your hair… who wants to see an exhibit about BATS? Visitors to “Masters of the Night” soon find these beliefs to be myths that have held fast throughout the years. The exhibit explains that bats are actually gentle, beneficial little animals. Did you know that many fruit bearing trees in the constantly threatened rainforest depend on bats? In order to reproduce, the seeds of the tree’s fruits must be dispersed. Bats eat the fruit and, in turn, spread waste materials containing seeds, regenerating the rainforest.

HANDS-ON INTERACTIVES
Try on a giant pair of bat ears (nearly 20 times their actual size) to experience the sensitivity of bat hearing. Or if food is more appealing, try to match the bats with their favorite foods and look for bats masked in a variety of habitats. Discover how bats use a form of sonar called echolocation to search for food. Other interactives help find where bats are located worldwide, and discover how mother bats easily find their babies.

EXHIBIT DETAILS
A Neo-Gothic portal opens the way into the exhibit. The adjacent home of the 18th-century bat enthusiast walks visitors through centuries of mythic representations of bats by different cultures.

A transitional area with bat portrait photography and a giant-screen video introduces visitors to the real world of bats as diverse, beneficial mammals with fascinating skills and extraordinary abilities.

A hands-on display relates to the evening activities of bats, such as echolocation (sonar ability), pollination, diet and flight. For example, in a demonstration of echolocation, visitors can use a joystick to maneuver a bat model in search of food using a laser to simulate sonar.
In a visit to a bat nursery, visitors learn how caring bat mothers are by using sound to help the mother bat find her baby.

There is also a computer bat learning station, a "Bat Mobile" spinning zoetrope to show bat flight and an information kiosk about the mysterious White Nose Syndrome that is decimating bats in the northeastern United States.

Dr. Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International (BCI), served as scientific consultant to the exhibit. BCI is recognized as the international leader in conservation and education initiatives that protect bats and their habitats.

The companion program in the Abbitt Planetarium is “Beyond the Night:
More than Meets the Eye.” Presented at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, this program shows what lies beyond the night sky that is visible to the human eye. Planetarium shows are $4 plus museum admission.

The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to
5 p.m. Sunday.

Admission is $17 for adults and $13 for children (ages 3-12). Ages 2 and under are free. Members are admitted free.

The museum is located at 524 J. Clyde Morris Blvd., Newport News, I64, exit 258A.

Call 757-595-1900 or visit www.thevlm.org.

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