According to a new update from Disney, the bat exhibit located in the Maharajah Jungle Trek in Disney’s Animal Kingdom will be closing for a short refurbishment.
Bat Exhibit Refurbishment
The new update can be found on the official Bats page on the Walt Disney World website. Text below the area’s main image says the exhibit will be closed starting on February 17. The text also mentions that the bats are expected to return sometime in early March, but no exact reopening date is listed. Assuming the exhibit reopens by mid-March, the total refurbishment time will be about three to four weeks. The notice of the refurbishment has not yet been added to the main Maharajah Jungle Trek page.
The bats at Disney’s Animal Kingdom are called Large flying foxes or Malayan flying foxes. As one of the largest bat species in the world, the flying foxes have a wingspan of up to six feet. Unlike other bat species, the flying foxes rely more on eyesight and smell to locate food instead of echolocation. The bats’ main diet is fruit, making them perfectly safe for guests to interact with during the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The entrance to the trek is in the Asia section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, behind the main entrance to the currently-closed Kali River Rapids.
The Maharajah Jungle Trek is one of the main animal-spotting trails in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In addition to the bats, guests can also visit exhibits housing gibbons, a Komodo dragon, and water buffalo. Guests also walk through a large bird aviary, where they can spot the new Malayan great argus pheasant chick.
However, one of the main attractions at the Maharajah Jungle Trek is the Sumatran tigers. A new Sumatran tiger cub named Bakso was born in September 2024, and he made his debut to the trek in January of this year. Demand to see the new baby tiger has caused an increase in traffic at the Maharajah Jungle Trek, with guests sometimes being forced to wait in a line outside the area. During one of our visits to the park, the line for Maharajah Jungle Trek reached almost a 50-minute wait.
Will you be visiting the bats before the exhibit is closed for a few weeks? Let us know in the comments.
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