A set of stairs on campus dead ends into a nondescript white door. Beyond the door, situated in one of the building’s towers, is a new research lab that is home to a colony of vampire bats.
The 22 small bats, each about two ounces in weight and 3 inches in length, cluster mostly together at the top of an enclosure. Their room is small, about the size of an office, and kept in darkness.
The story of how the bats came to occupy the belfry isn’t spooky but did involve a bit of collaborative magic. In two short months, staff from Princeton Facilities and Laboratory Animal Resources (LAR) transformed an unused space into a bat cave.
The bats are being studied by new associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) Gerald Carter. Vampire bats form lifesaving food sharing relationships with related and unrelated peers. Dr. Carter is interested in these long-term friendship-like relationships and understanding how they are formed.
Dr. Carter was recruited to Princeton in mid-May of 2024 and required a home on campus for the bats by his start date on the first of September, per the terms of his Freeman Hrabowski Scholarship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Space is tight on campus. When the request initially came in, Brian Ludwig, the facilities manager for LAR, wasn’t sure they could make it happen. But then he remembered the space in the tower. When Ludwig started at Princeton 14 years ago, the space was being used for fish research. Now vacant, the space provided the basic infrastructure to be converted into a bat habitat.
With the space in mind, Ludwig went to the Provost’s Office to request funding and an expedited project timeline. “Then the whirlwind started,” he said. “Engineering and Campus Energy and Special Facilities took over.”
A cluster of white-winged vampire bats. (Photo by Gerald Carter)
Staff from Engineering and Campus Energy drew up electrical, mechanical and HVAC plans to control the temperature, humidity, pressure and airflow in the space. They drafted code and installed hardware that senses and controls the air with precision. Everything was tied into a network for control and monitoring.
“We were fortunate that we had the big bits of infrastructure in place,” said Scott Sepsy, director of mechanical engineering. “We didn’t have to buy any exotic parts and could tap into what was already there.”
The group hired contractors to supplement inhouse work to get everything installed, including light sources and reverse osmosis water for cage cleaning, and exhaust and air supply. Special Facilities worked with Dr. Carter to procure and install caging for inside the room.
“From my point of view, (the lab build) was like magic,” said Dr. Carter. “Every step of the way has been mind-blowing. The team just came along and made it happen. It was all set up before I got here.”
Now that the bats are settled, work continues for the team that built out the space. LAR maintains the space and cares for the animals. The controls engineers and operators remotely monitor and send daily reports about conditions in the bat room. If something goes wrong or needs regular maintenance, Special Facilities and the controls shop are on call to help.
“It’s much more complicated than people believe,” said Paul Larzelere, supervisor in Special Facilities. “We have iPads where we can monitor the system so when we get a call, we can go in and see what is happening.”
While this project was unique due to the shortened timeline and the animal inhabitant, it is well within the normal work for the teams involved.
“We get involved when a lab wants to upgrade their controls,” said Adam Boltz, controls engineer. “We’ve done full air handler installations for spaces. We can do a full upgrade of a lab or a new installation.”
“The whole community came together to make it work for Dr. Carter,” said Ludwig. “That’s customer service for and to everybody: LAR, EEB and Facilities. It was seamless.”