Bats As A Source of Hope

Earlier this week we drove into Austin to watch the bats emerge from the Congress Avenue bridge. Watching the bats come out to feed was simply incredible. As they flew out from the bridge at dusk, the bats clustered into streams so they looked like gauzy black ribbons floating in the sky. At some points, there were so many bats overhead that we could hear the collective flapping of their wings.

I’ve included a video I found on YouTube on our home page so you can get a glimpse of the sight if you are not in the area. If you are in the area and have yet to see the bats, go! And you are in luck because August and September are the prime viewing months.

For those who are unfamiliar with stats on bats, Austin is home to the largest urban colony of bats in the world. When the Congress Avenue bridge was renovated in early 1980s, the new design was unknowingly (at least to humans) wonderful for bats. Narrow openings created under the bridge to provide room for the bridge to expand and contract as temperatures change turned out to provide a safe haven for Mexican free-tailed bats. So they began to move in – thousands of them.

Once people realized so many bats were nesting under the bridge, there was a push to exterminate them. But a local nonprofit organization, Bat Conservation International, joined the discussion and began educating Austins’s residents about the benefits of the bats, like fact that they eat their body weight in insects every night and that they especially love to snack on mosquitoes and the enormously destructive cotton boll worm moths. (To provide some context to their impact, studies have shown that in one Texas eight county region, Mexican free-tailed bats prevent crop losses and pest management costs estimated at $741,000 per year.) Bat Conservation International also made sure people knew that bats are gentle creatures, not at all like the bats in vampire movies.

Here is the part that makes me hopeful for our planet’s future. Once Bat Conservation International convinced everyone not to kill the bat colony, the bats began to flourish. Now every year approximately 750,000 pregnant Mexican free-tailed bats migrate north to Austin and settle under the bridge to birth and raise their pups. With the births, which take place in June and July, the colony expands to 1.5 million bats. And the bats are celebrated throughout town.

Bat viewing has become one of Austin’s must-do events. Bat seeking tourists now bring $10 million annually into Austin’s economy. People line the sides of the Congress Avenue bridge and riverbanks below, as well as take to the water in boats, to watch the bats emerge, often clapping as the bats begin to fly.

I can’t think of many animals that have a worse reputation among humans than bats. So seeing all the folks turn out to rejoice in and marvel at the sight was amazing. And knowing they were there because a dedicated group of people worked to educate others filled me with hope.

I expected to watch the bats fly into the air that night. I just didn’t realize that I would be the one who left uplifted.

If you are interested in viewing the bats in Austin, visit the Congress Avenue bridge at dusk. The south-east side of the bridge offers the best views. Since the time of sunset changes, call the Austin American-Statesman’s Bat Hotline at 512-416-5700, extension 3636, to learn the current flight time. The bats live in Austin from March through September before heading south for the winter.

Please consider supporting Bat Conservation International, which conducts science-based bat conservation efforts around the world. On their website you can learn more about bats, learn how to select and install a bat house, adopt a bat, and much more.

This post was included in the Carnival of the Green at Eco Tech Daily.

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