Q: What is Texas best known for? A: The Alamo Q: And what else?
A: Having the largest bat colony in the world, and the largest
urban bat colony in North America
WHO KNEW?
Interested in partaking of this opportunity? It could even bring
you luck. To the Chinese, bats are thought to bring good luck
and happiness. They symbolize health, long life, prosperity,
love of virtue and natural death.
If you’re looking for something different to do that’s also
educational and generally not expensive, consider having a bat
outing. Many of the bat colonies in Texas are near some of the
best tourism areas – San Antonio, TX for instance, with the
Alamo, Fiesta Texas, Sea World, and the RiverWalk, and since the
bats take off at dusk, you can add it to the end of a day of
sightseeing.
QUICKIE PRIMER Did you know a bat can hear the footsteps of a
walking insect?
Chances are you aren’t a bat expert, and if you take an
adventure like this, you can wrap it around a really fascinating
learning experience. For instance, did you know that:
·Bats are the only mammals that can fly. ·One quarter of all
mammal species are bats. ·Little brown bats can live over 32
years. ·A bat will eat half its weight in insects in a single
night and doesn’t harm the environment. They love mosquitoes,
and crop pests such as cutworms, cucumber beetles, and corn
borer moths. ·A bat uses a kind of natural sonar called
“echolocation” to find insects which accounts for their weird
faces. They send signals through their mouths or their noses,
and they need those big ears to hear the sonar. ·They fly out
together in the millions, but are able to navigate around the
sounds of one another.
This data is from the National Park Service, and you can read
more here: http://www.nps.gov/wica/bats.htm .
ECO-HELPFUL?
In addition to eating insects and not being harmful to the
environment, according to the National Park Service, “bat
droppings (guano) support entire ecosystems of unique organisms,
including bacteria useful in detoxifying wastes, improving
detergents and producing gasohol and antibiotics.”
RABIES
You’re far more likely to get it from a closer friend, an
unvaccinated dog or cat. Chances of getting it from a bat are
very small. 16 years of bat-watching at the Congress Avenue
Bridge have yielded no cases. In the whole bat-rich area of
Central Texas, no death from rabies from a bat has ever been
recorded. Nationwide, only 10 people in the past 30 years have
gotten rabies from a bat. It’s also good to know that when a bat
gets rabies, it doesn’t get aggressive, like other mammals. It
just lies there and dies.
OTHER MYTHS
They love to fly into your hair! This and other myths are
countered on the Bat Conservation International (BCI) site:
http://www.batcon.org/ . One of the researchers at the BCI tried
to get a bat to stay in someone’s hair (wonder who volunteered?)
and was unsuccessful.
PLACES FOR VIEWING IN TEXAS
Austin, Texas
One of the most popular places is – you won’t believe this – the
Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin, TX. A colony of over
1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats lives there from mid-march
to early November, having their babies (pups) in early June. In
mid-August, they’ll make their first hunting trip out with their
mums.
Over 100,000 people come annually to see them fly out at dusk.
For driving directions and map, go here:
http://www.batcon.org/discover/congress_map_outoftowners.html .
The spectacle has all the elements of a good watch – mystery, a
bit of the creeps, expec-TA-shun, and results that don’t
disappoint. Tension builds as dusk falls and all eyes turn to
the bridge, waiting. Then you see one bat and the crowd cheers,
then another, then a million. Silently they head out into the
night and to think of where all those bats are heading – well, I
often used to see them dive-bombing my swimming pool at night.
How can you see them? ·You can bring a blanket and picnic basket
and view them from the Bat Observation Center at one corner of
the bridge. They offer educational kiosks, and BCI
“interpreters” on summer weekends, Thursday through Sunday, June
through August. ·From a cruise on Capital Cruise Boats (
http://www.capitalcruises.com/html/bat.htm ) or Lone Star River
Boats. ·From the outdoor bat-observation decks of the Radisson
Hotel on Town Lake, TGI Fridays, and the Hotel on Town Lake, and
the Shoreline Bar & Grill restaurant in the Hyatt-Regency Austin
hotel.
There is ample free parking around, and it has the element of an
“old timey’ adventure. This is not Disney World; non-commercial,
loosely structured, and basically free. I’ve taken people of all
ages to see this, and even those hard-to-impress teens were
spellbound.
Call the Bat Hot Line - 512-416-5700 (Category 3636) for
information.
The Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve
A combined effort of the Texas Nature Conservancy and the BCI,
this cave is one of the largest bat nurseries in the US.
Located southwest of the town of Mason, TX near State Highway
290. 8 acres, open mid-May to early October for interpretive
tours, Thursday – Sunday, 6-9 p.m. Some sunrise tours are
available, where you can see the bats coming back. A donation of
$5 is suggested.
http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states
exas/preserves/art6022.html .
Go here to see a photo of the bats emerging at sunset:
http://nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states
exas/images/o_bat_emergence1.jpg . The bats fly out in a funnel
formation that’s fascinating to watch. And if you're an
early-bird, they sometimes offer sunRISE watchings. For
information, call (325) 347-5970.
The Frio Bat Cave
About an hour and a half northwest of San Antonio, TX you’ll
find the Frio Bat Cave. It’s near Lost Maples State Natural Area
and Hill Country Adventures offers birding and wildlife tours,
river tours by kayak (4 and 8-hour versions), SAG support for
road cyclists, and our goal here, the Sunset Bat Flight Tour.
To “reserve your date with Nature,” they say, call 830-966-2320,
and visit them on the web here:
http://www.hillcountryadventures.com .
This 2000 foot cave houses around 10 million Mexican free-tailed
bats. Wear traction shoes, as there’s bat guano on the floor of
the cave.
The history of this cave is fascinating, including the fact it
figured in a very unusual project involving bats at the
beginning of World War II. Bats were going to be fitted with
“incendiary devices” and dropped like little fire bombs on
Japan. I am not making this up. You can read about it in “Bat
Bomb: World War II’s other Secret Weapons,” ( http:/
inyurl.com/26d2h ) by Jack Couffer, or on this website:
http://www.chiropteraphilia.com/cavehistory.html .
You may wish to take home a jar of Guano-Gro, or a bat house,
available here:
http://www.hillcountryadventures.com/hca_store.htm .
Bat-watching can add an element of ecology and learning to your
vacation trip. Combine it with a spring trip when the
wildflowers are in bloom! If, when you get back home, you want
to build your own bat house for the many endangered species of
bats, there are instructions here:
http://www.nps.gov/wica/bats.htm .
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