During these hot summer nights, when many area residents are cleaning up after a barbecue, watering the plants or settling in to a good TV show, something amazing is taking place in the Hill Country. What starts as a few batting of wings proceeds with a flurry of excitement at the mouth of a cave when more than 20 million Mexican free-tailed bats begin their nightly exit into the Texas sky to feed. They gracefully form a black stream just out of reach of the gawkers who gaze with heads tilted backwards, mouths open in complete awe of these creatures.
“It is like a big storm coming out of the cave,” said Presley Wirebaugh, 6, of New Braunfels after watching the bats emerge from the Bracken Bat Cave.
Cave tour guide Virginia Parker of San Antonio, first came to the Bracken Bat Cave and Nature Reserve when she was Wirebaugh’s age. She recently told the group gathered at the cave that as a youngster, she asked so many questions about bats that Bat Conservation International (headquartered in Austin), the stewards of Bracken Bat Cave, always remembered her — which is how she came to be a volunteer guide at the cave years later.
She is a virtual walking dictionary of bat knowledge.
“I think the biggest misconception about bats is that they attack people, and that they go in your hair,” Parker said.
Jonathan Friedman, development director with international conservation organization, said that is simply not true.
“What they really like is big, fat, juicy bugs,” he said.
They also feed on fruit and yes, blood. And yes, there is a species of bats known as vampire bats.
But the truth is, these mammals have gotten a bad rap — probably in part from Hollywood. While the mammals do “flutter” and “swoop,” as they exit from the cave, no one is shrieking or running from them. The bats are amazingly graceful as they perform their nightly ballet that goes on for hours — bats usually do not return to the cave until dawn.
In addition to being beautiful to watch, Parker said many people don’t realize what a tremendous resource they provide.
“They aid in pollination and pest control,” she said.
According to the conservation group, in one night the Bracken bats will have consumed 200 tons of flying insects, which greatly aides farmers in the area.
“And Garden-Ville of San Antonio comes to the cave to pump out the bat guano to sell as fertilizer. It makes a tremendous fertilizer,” Parker said.
The guano mine at Bracken Bat Cave was featured on Mike Rowe’s “Dirty Jobs” television show and gives off a smell that, well, will be remembered for a lifetime.
Beginning at about 8 p.m., the bats begin making their exit providing the much awaited main attraction for the tour group watching on. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom has nothing on this live show.
As the bats continue to stream out, binoculars begin to focus on two long movements along the cliff above the cave. A pair of snakes have been patiently waiting for the moment and lurch upward in hopes of snatching a low-flying bat. At the same time, a red-tailed hawk, another enemy, flies overhead. Later, when the tour group heads back, an owl surfaces, circling the path of the bats, and then joining them to snatch one away.
“It’s so dry right now, that everything is coming out to feed,” Parker said.
But natural enemies are not the biggest threat right now to bats.
“The White-nose syndrome is the biggest threat to bats right now,” Friedman said. “Lots and lots of bats are dying, especially in the northeast, and we don’t know why.”
Several experts with bat conservation organization and others recently met for a symposium to discuss the disease and try to find answers.
In addition, wind energy also poses a threat to bats because of the numbers of bat fatalities at wind energy sites, Parker said.
Development also might pose a threat to the Bracken bats because nearby property has been sold to a developer. Although the developer is building “green,” there is concern about how nearby construction might affect the bats’ ecosystem.
Parker said there is no question about bats that surprises her on her tours. She can tell you, that just like the 6-year-old Virginia Parker of not so long ago, it is the kids who usually know more about bats than the adults.
Wirebaugh is excited because she guessed the answer to one of Parker’s questions about bats and fertilizer.
“Guano,” she answered. “And there is something else I need to tell everybody. If we didn’t have bats, we would not be able to go outside. Because they eat all the mosquitoes.”
Someone else asks if the nightly black swarm ever causes concern for pilots in the area.
“I don’t think so,” Parker said. “But I can tell you that we show up on the weather radar. The weathermen will bring up the radar screen and point to the area and say, ‘That’s the Bracken bats making their nightly emergence,’” she said.
Little heads nod in agreement as if to say, “We know.”
For those interested in helping bats, there are many ways to do so. For $15, those interested can sign up for the Adopt-a-Bat program, or for $35, they can adopt a bat and receive a one-year membership to Bat Conservation International. The membership includes opportunities to join international ecotours and workshops and field trips. Membership also provides an opportunity to sign up, on a first-come, first-serve basis for a Bracken Bat Cave tour.
Bat Conservation International also is trying to restore the surrounding Hill Country around the cave to its native state, according to the conservation group. The group is offering the Charter Land Steward program allowing for an acre adoption program to bring them closer to its goal of offering an interpretive center and one day opening up the cave and nature reserve to the public.
The group also offers instructions on how to construct bat houses. These not only help the bats but help with pest control in the backyard.
“I have several friends who have constructed bat houses, because they were tired of using the (citronella) candles,” Parker said.
According to the Bat Conservation International Web site, batcon.org, Texas has the honor of being the battiest state in the U.S. Some of the area bat homes include:
For information, call 866-978-2287.
Bracken Bat Cave |
Going batty |