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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> December
> December 4, 1998:
Hour Two: San Antonio Remote: Bats
Put away the stakes and garlic. Halloween is over. We're talking about real bats, not Hollywood's imagination. 
Bats emerge from under the Congress
Ave Bridge in Austin.
Photo © Merlin D. Tuttle,
Bat Conservation International. | Texas Hill Country is home to some of the world's densest concentration of mammals. Austin, TX boasts the Congress Avenue Bridge - home to about 1.5 million bats in peak season. Bracken Cave, outside San Antonio, hosts a colony of Mexican free-tailed bats estimated at over 40 million strong. | 
Bats emerge from Bracken Cave.
Photo © Merlin D. Tuttle,
Bat Conservation International. |
Those millions of bats cause few documented problems. The old tales of bats flying into people's hair, or menacing farm animals, or being fierce and aggressive just aren't true. Only one-third of one percent of bats feed on blood, and those are found only in Latin America. And the bats perform a vital service to the residents of Texas, consuming tens of tons of insects nightly. Many people, however, still look at bats with ignorance and apprehension, destroying nesting colonies. Loss of forest land also removes prime bat roosting sites. Other colonies are inadvertently destroyed when people seal up caves and abandoned mines in the interests of safety.
| Some conservation groups are trying to save bat colonies from destruction by educating the public about the beneficial role of bats, by working to seal old mines with barred gates rather than dynamiting them shut, and by encouraging people to build bat houses to host their own small colonies of bats. A major study is seeking to find out how road bridges and overpasses can be made bat-friendly, providing roosting space for millions of bats through small design changes. One man has even spent $250,000 to build a massive artificial bat cave (he calls it a chiroptorium) to house bats on a ranch near Johnson City.
What's the truth behind bat folklore - and why are some folks so batty? Join Ira Flatow for this special remote broadcast from San Antonio, Texas, and find out. | 
The Mexican free-tailed bat, a
prime resident of Texas Hill Country.
Photo © Merlin D. Tuttle
Bat Conservation International. |
Guests:
Tim Hanks
President
Commercial Bat Control
San Antonio, TX
Kim Hoskins
Formerly in education department, San Antonio Zoo
Environmental Education Consultant
Last Chance Forever/The Bird of Prey Conservancy
San Antonio, TX
Brian Keeley
Bats and Bridges Project Coordinator
Bat Conservation International
Austin, TX
Rachel Kowalski
North American Bat Conservation Partnership Staff Biologist
Bat Conservation International
Austin, TX
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Bat Conservation International
Bat Conservation Trust (UK)
Buzbee Bat House temperature plot (check out the massive list of links on this page)
Texas Public Radio
The Witte Museum
This segment produced by:
Karin Vergoth
Web producer/Writer:
Charles Bergquist
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