Our Great Parks
Fern Cave National Wildlife Refuge
Park Type: National Wildlife Refuge
The Park is located in: AL
Address:
2700 Refuge Headquarters Road
Decatur, AL 35609
Phone: 256-353-7243
Park Details:
Fern Cave NWR was purchased in 1981 to provide protection for the federally endangered gray and Indiana bats. It consists of 199 acres of forested hillside underlain by a massive cave with many stalactite and stalagmite-filled rooms. The cave has five hidden entrances with four occurring on the Refuge. Fern Cave contains the largest wintering colony of gray bats in the United States with over one million bats hibernating there in the winter. Bat experts also think that as many as one million Indiana bats may be using the cave and an expedition into the cave is being planned for the future.
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