SAN ANTONIO – One by way of one, they emerge, and because the solar units, they’re on a venture. The Bracken Cave Preserve north of San Antonio is house to an estimated 20 million Mexican Free-tailed bats which are important to our ecosystem.
A workforce visited the cave not too long ago to get an up-close glance at this Texas Hill Country phenomenon.
“They’re coming out for dinner. They’re going to come out and forage all night long, flying at least 60 miles away,” stated Fran Hutchins, bat conservation world director at Bracken Cave Preserve.
The Mexican Free-tailed bats have turn out to be a sight to peer. They migrate from Mexico to the Hill Country in mid-February.
“They’re here all summer long to have their babies, and they’ll be leaving somewhere around Thanksgiving, early November. When we get our first big cold snap, they’ll be heading back south to Mexico,” stated Hutchins.
As hundreds of thousands of bats fly out of the cave, they invent what’s referred to as a “batnado” to lend a hand get 1000’s in their colonies within the air.
“The bats are coming out of the bottom of an 80-foot deep sinkhole, so spiraling out in a counterclockwise vortex. We call it a ‘batnado,’” stated Hutchins. “When they drop off the ceiling, the vortex is spiraling. The vortex allows those smaller groups to get together, so they’re out foraging together.”
Hutchins stated the bats will devour over 150 heaps of insects and bugs on any given evening.
“Most of those bugs are going to be agricultural pests, so they’re real important to our local farmers for all the agricultural pests that they eat,” stated Hutchins. “That saves farmers money, saves us money. We don’t have pesticides being sprayed on the crops and contaminating our water. It’s a win-win for our farmers and the bats.”
While the Mexican Free-tailed bats are the primary tenants, they aren’t the one bat species in our space.
Wildlife biologist Jeremiah McKinney is accomplishing an acoustic survey at Natural Bridge Caverns to spot what number of species name the San Antonio space house.
“We’ve documented, with the software indicating possibly 16 species at the ranch, which is a very wide array of species,” stated McKinney.
Unlike the Mexican Free-tailed bats, many of those species are tree bats, and previously 15 years, those mavens say urbanization and drought are their largest threats.
“You’re obviously losing diversity because they’re having to search far and wide to get to water,” stated McKinney.
“We have 32 different species of bats that call Texas home,” stated Hutchins. “When we’re losing that green space, we’re losing that habitat for those bats.”
On the night time we visited, the bats got here out of the cave previous than standard, an indication they will have to stick out longer to forage for meals.
“The amount of rainfall we have in the area affects the amount of food for the bats. It’s been over 100 degrees for the last couple of months every day,” stated Hutchins. “We see all the crops that are crispy brown out in the fields. They have to come out earlier in the evening to be out long enough to get enough to eat. More rainfall means our crops are doing really well, means more food, so the bats don’t have to work as hard.”
The winds in this evening are directing the Free-tailed bats to the southeast, taking them as a long way away as Pleasanton sooner than they go back house to leisure and do it once more the following night time.
“You can’t beat being here because you can hear the bats, you can smell the bats and you can see the bats,” stated Hutchins. “This emergence that we’re seeing right now is going to last for at least three and a half hours.”
Click here for more information on the Bracken Cave Preserve.
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