The bat population at Taoyuan’s Sanmin Bat Cave (三民蝙蝠洞) has shown signs of recovery after dropping to nearly zero over the past two decades, the Taoyuan Department of Tourism said on Sunday.
The department urged visitors to the cave to follow the rules when observing the bats to preserve their habitat.
Crossing the fences or climbing over nearby rocks could damage the habitat and drive the bats away, so visitors should only observe the animals from a nearby lookout, department Director Yang Sheng-ping (楊勝評) said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
To improve the experience at the cave, the department in 2018 spent NT$12.95 million (US$438,596 at the current exchange rate) to restore the site, which involved repairing its trails, rebuilding the lookout, and building a parking lot and other facilities, Yang said.
The cave, which is in Fusing District (復興) in Taoyuan’s mountainous east, is made up of cavernous rock formations and was once home to a bat population as many as 10,000.
However, the animals had been almost completely absent from the cave for more than two decades. Their departure had been linked to tourists littering and barbecuing near the cave, and along a trail leading up to it, despite signs warning against such behavior.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The cave — which is 20m long, 50m wide and 20m deep — still attracts a large number of visitors due to its natural beauty, and traces of the old bat population can still be seen in the cave’s red soil formed by their droppings.
Kung Chun-kai (孔俊凱), a travel enthusiast familiar with the cave, said that it is home to strange-looking rock formations.
It has been rumored that the bats had left the cave because people would enter it to meditate, which, among other human behavior, disturbed the animals’ habitat, he said.
Following the restoration, some bats have returned, with about 70 to 80 animals beings spotted on the cave ceiling, Kung said.
The species of bat has yet to be confirmed, but they are larger than regular bats and look similar to the fruit bats that live on Lala Mountain in Taoyuan, he added.
The reappearance of bats inside the cave is a sign that the local ecology is improving, he said, adding that the animals are likely to attract more of their kind to the cave.
The cave has been placed on a list of tourist hotspots for the Northern Cross Adventure Festival organized by the Taoyuan City Government, which aims to promote 10 itineraries featuring mountain trails and waterfalls near the North Cross-Island Highway.
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