How can enjoying a lavender vanilla latte help our local Austin bats? Hankering for a chai almond milk latte or a double espresso and a cinnamon muffin? Revival Coffee on E 7th supports three local charities every quarter. When you purchase anything at the counter from a coffee drink to a beer to a pastry, they give you a little ticket. You then can choose a charity jar to which you can add your ticket. This quarter Austin Bat Refuge is offered as one of the local charities. At the end of the quarter, the charity with the most tickets receives a percentage donation from Revival coffee. What an awesome way to advocate for Austin’s many organizations and what an easy way for you to go down, grab a delicious drink and support Austin’s bats and the amazing people that dedicate themselves to educating the community about how incredible and important bats are to the world!

Sometimes it is the simplest things that can help bats in your community!

Revival Coffee, 1405 E 7th

https://www.revivaltexas.com/


Great visit with sustaining supporter Morgan Klug, who trecked all the way from Las Vegas, Nevada to visit the refuge.  Morgan brought her sister Audrey (who is a vet tech in Vegas) and Audrey’s delightful four year old daughter Kaylee. Their proud mum Tracey accompanied them and mostly took care of Kaylee while her daughters geeked out on bats!  They both donned gloves and hand fed our education bats while we closely supervised.  They seemed to really love the opportunity to get up close and personal with Buffy, Star, and Asia. Below Audrey is feeding Asia while Kaylee is snuggling into Tracey’s jacket.  Thanks so much for coming y’all and for being such great supporters!


This Mexican free-tailed skypup is multi-tasking, doing his yoga while eating his breakfast!


We were contacted a few weeks ago by a German ecological consultant on sabbatical, who has been traveling the world for the last year or so.  Starting six months ago she was in Patagonia, then in the Brazilian Pantanal, far upstream in the Amazon, and in Montreal, before volunteering with us for three weeks.  An intrepid traveler, she has been camping in the jungles and couch-surfing the cities of the world before arriving at facility with an open mind and an open heart, sharing wonderful stories from her travels.

What a joy it was to get to know her!  She is a true citizen of the world, and she filled us with hope for the future!  As a global ambassador, her ability to share the wonder of the natural world did her country proud!  Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and who knows how many other languages, her light shines brightly and we are so happy she came to stay with us for this short while!

Lisa Soehn, you are a spectacular human being!  May that twinkle in your eye continue to spread to all you meet!
Love always from Texas!

Lisa Soehn


After the crowds leave Congress Avenue Bridge, a few more bats take flight!
All the best girls!


We got lucky on Friday the 13th and had lovely weather for our education table at the Bat Viewing Area.
We shared the wonders of bats with scores of out-of-towners.
We so enjoyed meeting Sonia from Austria, Anne from France, Ali & Xav from Paris, and that group of impressive women in town for the Anthropology conference, from Virginia, Canada, the UK and Cyprus.
What fun!  Thanks for visiting with us y’all!

We hope the bats were as lucky as we were!  We at the Bat Viewing Area all watched on live radar as  a lovely Seabreeze pushed insects toward the Hill Country and the Bracken bats foraged along the front.  But then things changed.
The lovely Seabreeze turned into wicked storms from the northwest.  Davis Blowout, Huber Limestone Mine, McNeil Bridge, and Congress Bridge bats all appeared to have been caught out in the storms.  We hope they sheltered at McNeil to escape the worst of it.
Bats caught in hailstorms frequently experience broken wing bones from the hail.  Guess we’ll see how many bats are found by humans and brought to us today. Bless their brave little hearts!

 


The following is an article by Zeke MacCormack, a San Antonio Express-News staff writer:
Published in the San Antonio Express-News  April 5, 2018

Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from the Bracken Cave at dusk to foray for food on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017. An estimated 20 million bats make Bracken Cave their home from March through November, making it the world's largest bat colony. MARVIN PFEIFFER/ mpfeiffer@express-news.net Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer, Staff / San Antonio Express-News / Express-News 2017

Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer, Staff / San Antonio Express-News
Mexican free-tailed bats emerge from the Bracken Cave at dusk to foray for food on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017.

 

In a double dose of troubling news, the fungus blamed for killing millions of East Coast bats since its discovery there in 2007 has been found in Central Texas and on a Mexican free-tailed bat — both firsts.

However, the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife announcement of those discoveries Wednesday noted that no Texas bats have been found exhibiting signs of the malady known as “white nose syndrome.”

“Biologists say it usually takes a few years after detecting the fungus for the disease to manifest,” said the release that identified four new Texas counties where Pseudogymnoascus destructans fungus had been found, bringing the total to 10.
It previously was found on cave bats, tri-colored bats and Townsend’s big-eared bats.

In the San Antonio region, the fungus was detected on bats at two sites in Kendall County and two sites in Blanco County.
Kendall County is now the southernmost location in the nation where researchers have discovered the fungus, which was first detected in Texas in 2017 in the Panhandle, officials said.
The deadly illness typically strikes hibernating bats, causing declines of winter populations by more than 90 percent in some locations.
So its presence in free-tailed bats, which migrate rather than hibernate, raises a new series of concerns.
“They migrate in huge populations all over the country so they could spread the disease much faster,” said Jonah Evans, a TPWD mammalogist
The Mexican free-tail bat carrying the fungus was found at the Old Tunnel State Park in Kendall County, he said.
Evans described researchers as shocked by the results of testing on skin swabs that were collected from bat wings and muzzles between December and last month by a coalition of biologists from Bat Conservation International, Texas A&M University’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and its Natural Resources Institute.

“We were disappointed to see that it had moved southward as fast as it has,” Evans said. “We all expected it would move around the state, but it’s kind of shocking to see it happen this fast.”
The recent testing also found the fungus on bats in Foard and Wheeler counties, in North Texas, officials said.
The TPWD release said, “Because bats usually produce just one offspring per year, researchers are concerned it could take many decades for some populations to recover from a major decline.”
A widespread outbreak of the deadly disease in free-tailed bats could hold financial implications for agricultural producers who rely on the winged mammals to eradicate insects that feed on their crops.

The estimated value of bat pest control is $1.4 billion annually in Texas, the TPWD release says.
“Mexican free-tailed bats are key predators of agricultural pests in Texas, primarily moths that feed on corn and cotton,” said Mylea Bayless of Bat Conservation International.
“Since white nose syndrome is a disease of hibernating bats, we’re cautiously optimistic that Mexican free-tailed bats — which don’t hibernate — will fare better than other species in terms of contracting the disease and experiencing mortality from it,” she said.
The free-tailed bat also is an iconic presence, she said, drawing visitors watch them emerge by the millions from Bracken Cave just north of San Antonio, the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin and other major colonies.

“This bat is special to Texas, which is one of the reasons that this news is particularly distressing,” Bayless said Wednesday.
Beyond trying to track the spread of the fungus, she said, “Bat conservation International is working with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and others to explore and test potential treatments for white nose syndrome.”

Zeke MacCormack is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | zeke@express-news.net | @zekemac


What a great illustration of a moth jamming a bat’s echolocation!
Illustration by Chris Tullar from Aaron Corcoran.
This is a great depiction of what goes on in our flight cage every night (albeit with different species)!

Bats have been echolocating for around 25 million years and moths have been evolving defenses against them for just as long.
A bat has to be at the top of its game to make a living out there.

moth jamming bat


The National Fish & Wildlife Foundation asked us to “represent” as they announced grants given for “Bats For the Future” at the Shell Campus in Houston’s Energy Corridor. Nothing like seeing live bats up close and personal.  Our “Bat Ambassadors” were the stars of the show!
Thanks NFWF!
bats for the future


This Mexican free-tailed girl was found, a few weeks back, at Penn Field by Sara Fern of iHeart Media
She was super dehydrated from being stuck in a building for many days and was super lucky Sara found her.

After two weeks of good food and smart water, she flew beautifully last night, and is ready for release!
She says “I Live Here, I Give Here”
Thanks for giving her a second chance Sara!

Mexican free-tailed bat AA

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