Pitbulls & Paints: Lubee Bat Conservancy, Gainesville, FL

Yesterday was the annual Bat Festival at the Lubee Bat Conservancy in Gainesville, FL. Lubee is a bat organization that helps fruit bats worldwide through education, research, and conservation. They definitely do a great job with public outreach and opening their doors to the public so everyone can learn more about and fall in love with bats. One of the coolest festivals I've been to, because basically every table there had to do with bats, wildlife, or helping the environment (some of my favorite things!). Lots of cool merchandise, free handouts, educational material, opportunities to donate, and of course... bats! This is also the one day of the year that the facility is open to the public. The conservancy houses many fruit bat species from all over the world, even ones with a wingspan of 6 feet! Lubee also has two humongous bat houses located on UF campus, which are responsible for housing many Florida native species, and for the phenomenon of thousands of bats leaving to emerge and feed every evening at dusk. One of the coolest things I've ever seen... also a must see for Gainesville locals or visitors.

Here are just a few pictures I took at Lubee yesterday of their vast variety of resident fruit bats:

This is what the sky looks like at dusk when visiting the UF bat houses:

These are some awesome bat ornaments we got from The Occasional Bat. We may have gotten married almost 6 months ago but we will always remember that the reason we met.. and ultimately got married was because of a little brown bat :)

Check out their merchandise if you like bats.. they have ornaments, dog toys, pillows... all handmade and in any fabric you can imagine!