Texas is undergoing a historic drought that is affecting Mexican free-tailed bats that live underneath a downtown Austin bridge. This, the largest urban bat colony in the world, has been affected by the drought’s destruction of the colony’s insect prey, once found in the surrounding Texan crops. To find their food, these bats must leave the colony earlier in the evening, causing quite the spectacle for Autiners.
Every evening, the 1.5 million bats living under the Austin bridge, depart for their night-time hunt. The exodus is so thick with bats, their movement registers as “rain” on weather radar. While interesting for Austin citizens, this change in the bat’s hunting habits is a bad indication that life is getting tough on the colony. The bats migrate back to Mexico every October; hopefully, upon their return to Austin, conditions will be better.
Interested in teaching your students more about bats? Check out SSR's Vol 41 DVD, episode: Ecology - Bats: Creatures of the Night.
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