Hearts out to Waugh and Watonga Bridge bat colonies displaced from the horrible flooding of the Houston bayous, and thanks to all the caring Houstonites who reached out to us for information about how to help them. We are a small facility with limited resources and are in awe of our colleagues at Bat World who mobilized a large response to help the bats and their rescuers. We continue to be available by phone and email for information and to take additional bats from the Houston area if necessary.

Good strong emergence from Congress Avenue Bridge last night, some to the SSW and most to the SE.
Congress Bridge is 40 feet above the Colorado River and has not flooded since the bat colony moved in in the early 1980s. We have had bats displaced from the 9th St. Bridge, which is 12 feet high over Shoal Creek back in the surprise Memorial Day flood of 2015.  The next day the crevices were filled with anything that could float and when we dug out the flotsam and jetsam, no bats were found trapped behind the debris.  Our take is that the bats bailed out of the bridge as the water neared the crevices. The colony has since rebounded and seems as strong as ever, with many thousands flying out each night.

Our hearts ache for the people of southeast Texas, and for the bats in the bayou bridges of Houston. We hope and believe that they will rebound and again occupy those bridges in large numbers in the near future.

 

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Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone! We’re doing ok. The trees are still standing, although they looked as if they were in a washing machine for the last few days. The pups are doing fine. They seem to prefer their leaf umbrellas to the covered areas to which we continue to bring them.  When they do fly, they get buffeted by the strong gusts and soon land, but they needed to learn about all this. The adults that shelter under leaves stay fluffed out, while the pups get wet and stay soaked, so it must be a learned behavior to shake off the rain and stay warm. We still have four more days of rain, so we’re not out of it yet, but at least the winds are easing off some. Rains are much worse to our southeast. Prayers for Houston.  We’re ready to help with any bat fallout from trees and bridges.


Shhhh!! Our sleepy red boy is enjoying an afternoon nap on his leaf hammock! Nothing looks more comfortable to a foliage roosting bat than a big green leaf to lay on!

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Are these pups playing tag or is this a jam session?  Mexican free-tailed bats have been documented to jam each other’s echolocation signals when competition for food gets intense (see Aaron Corcoran’s research at http://sonarjamming.com) .  Do eastern red bats do the same in similarly competitive situations?  Here in the flight cage, there are not enough  moths for all the 30 plus flying rehab bats. Is this pup following his sibling to practice jamming his call and stealing the moth?  Or just playing?

austin bat presentations outreach educaation talks

austin bat education presentations outreach talks