BRUSSELS – Residents in Wallonia and Brussels are being offered a vampire-style ‘nuit blanche’ on Saturday.

Belgium is joining European Bat Night which aims to promote the public’s awareness of bats, which are an endangered species.

Special activities are being offered on Saturday night at around 40 sites in Brussels, Brabant Wallon, Hainaut, Namur, Liege and Luxembourg. Visitors are to be offered night walks, cave visits and trips to look at bat nests.

Guides will use ultrasound technology to track down bats and show the public that these nocturnal creatures are not blood-sucking monsters.

The night will include a special focus on the Rhinolophus, better known as the greater horseshoe bat for its nose shaped like a horse shoe. Weighing between seven and 10g, it is one of the most threatened creatures in Belgium, with just three reproducing colonies remaining in Modave, Orval and Beauraing.

For more information about the events, see:

http://www.eurobats.org/news_events/european_bat_night.htm

www.chauve-souris.be

www.natagora.be

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news