Yosemite Warns Visitors After Rabid Bat Found Near Curry Village Showers In May Sparking Health Precautions

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Yosemite National Park officials are urging visitors to seek medical guidance if they had contact with a bat near one of the park’s busiest lodging areas earlier this year, after a dead bat found outside a shower facility tested positive for rabies.

The park announced the finding in a news release Wednesday, more than three months after the bat was initially discovered. The big brown bat was found dead outside the Curry Village Showerhouse on May 18, according to Yosemite National Park, with the delay in announcing the result attributed to the time required to complete laboratory testing.

“No known human contact with the bat has been reported,” Yosemite National Park said in its release.

Despite the absence of any confirmed reports of human contact, park officials asked anyone who may have had direct contact with a bat in the Curry Village area on or around May 18 to contact the California Department of Public Health and reach out to a health care provider promptly to determine whether preventive treatment is necessary.

Officials emphasized that direct contact with a bat does not need to involve an obvious bite to warrant medical evaluation. Contact can also include a bat landing on clothing or a wing brushing against skin or hair, interactions that may not be immediately noticeable or painful but can still pose an exposure risk given how small bat bites and scratches can be.

Curry Village, tucked into the eastern corner of Yosemite Valley, is one of the park’s most heavily trafficked lodging areas, featuring restaurants, shops and a range of accommodation options spanning canvas tent cabins to standard hotel rooms. The area has been described by the Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau as offering a “distinct close-to-nature campground vibe,” a characterization that also underscores the close proximity many visitors have to the park’s surrounding wildlife during their stay.

Rabies is a fatal but preventable viral disease that primarily affects the central nervous system, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disease spreads through bites and scratches from infected animals and is most commonly carried by bats, foxes, raccoons and skunks. People almost always die once symptoms of the disease begin to appear, but the illness can be effectively prevented if a person receives appropriate medical care promptly after a potential exposure, before symptoms develop.

Individuals whose jobs regularly involve contact with animals, including agricultural workers, animal control personnel and veterinarians, face elevated risk of rabies exposure compared with the general public, according to the CDC. In California specifically, the disease is identified in roughly 200 animals each year, the vast majority of them wild animals rather than domesticated pets, according to figures from the California Department of Public Health.

Despite that annual animal case count, human rabies infections remain exceedingly rare in both California and the broader United States. The California Department of Public Health has reported that rabies infects very few humans within the state, with a total of 17 confirmed human cases recorded in California since 1980, and the most recent case occurring in 2024.

Yosemite officials noted that Wednesday’s finding, while concerning, is not unusual for the park given its extensive bat population. According to the park, a very small percentage of bats tested at Yosemite are found to be positive for rabies in any given year, as part of routine wildlife disease surveillance conducted by park staff.

“As part of routine park operations, deceased bats with no known human contact are collected and later tested to monitor wildlife disease that circulates naturally within bat populations,” park officials said in their statement. “A very small percentage of bats tested from Yosemite National Park are positive for rabies each year.”

Wednesday’s confirmed case was not the park’s first this year, according to officials, who noted that the last rabies-positive bat discovered in Yosemite prior to this finding was recorded in July 2025, indicating that such cases, while infrequent, do occur on a roughly annual basis within the park’s extensive bat population.

Yosemite is home to 17 different species of bats, which park officials say provide significant ecological and economic benefits to the broader park ecosystem, including natural pest control through the consumption of large quantities of flying insects. Despite those ecological benefits, park officials stressed the importance of maintaining strict distance from bats and other wildlife encountered within the park, regardless of whether the animal appears alive, injured or already deceased.

“Visitors should never touch or handle bats or other wild animals,” the National Park Service said in guidance accompanying the announcement. “If you encounter a bat, dead or alive, keep your distance and notify park staff.”

Park officials confirmed they are actively coordinating with the California Department of Public Health, along with the National Park Service’s Office of Health and Safety and its Wildlife Health Branch, regarding the case, as part of the broader effort to identify any visitors who may have had contact with the affected bat and connect them with appropriate medical guidance.

The announcement adds to a broader body of public health guidance surrounding wildlife encounters at national parks nationwide, where visitors frequently come into close proximity with a wide range of wild animals, including species capable of transmitting rabies and other zoonotic diseases. Public health officials continue to emphasize that any physical contact with a bat, whether the animal is alive or already dead, should be discussed promptly with a health care provider given the severity and preventability of the disease when treatment begins before symptoms appear.

For visitors planning trips to Yosemite or other national parks with significant bat populations, officials recommend maintaining a safe distance from any bat encountered during a visit and reporting sightings directly to park staff rather than attempting to handle, move or dispose of the animal independently, regardless of whether it appears to be alive, injured or deceased.