The initiative forms part of the company's Wildlife at Work program and is being run in partnership with Lubee Bat Conservancy, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to saving bats and their habitats. According to Brian Pope, Director of the organisation, 40 per cent of bats in the U.S. are threatened with extinction.
The bat has always been an iconic symbol for Bacardi and today it features on all of the company's spirits. In Spain, where the Bacardi family originally emigrated from, the bat symbolises good health, family unity, and good fortune, and in Cuba its famous rum became known as “el Ron del Murciélago” or “the Rum of the Bat.”
The Bacardi Bottling Corporation campus in Jacksonville, Florida is surrounded by natural wetlands, farming, and forest areas. Bats play an important role in the biodiversity of these ecosystems and the bat caves hope to preserve that as well as promote growth in the local bat population.
“Bats are vital to the health of natural ecosystems and human economies, so preservation of their habitats makes great sense with regard to sustainability,” Julio Torruella, Bacardi Global Environment Director said. “We work just as hard to find ways to preserve habitats and protect species as we do to reduce energy consumption and conduct business sustainably.”
The caves are expected to be filled with bats from the local area within just a few months and already four different types of the species, including the Mexican free-tailed, Evening bat, Tricolored and Eastern red bats, have been recorded on the property.
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