Austin's Awesome Bats

The (Ann W. Richards) Congress Avenue Bridge is home to the world's largest urban bat colony, which is composed of Mexican free-tailed bats. The bats reside beneath the road deck in gaps between the concrete component structures. They are migratory, spending their summers in Austin and the winters in Mexico. According to Bat Conservation International, between 750,000 and 1.5 million bats reside underneath the bridge each summer. Since Austin's human population is about 750,000, there are more bats than people in Austin during summer. The nightly emergence of the bats from underneath the bridge at dusk, and their flight across Lady Bird Lake primarily to the east, to feed themselves, attracts as many as 100,000 tourists annually. Tourists can see the bats from the bridge, from the sides of the river and from boats. A study made in 1999 concludes that the economic impact of the bats to Austin city is $7.9 million each year. Today, businesses are using the bats as a symbol for Austin. A project, called "Bats and Bridges", has been put in place by the Texas Department of Transportation, in cooperation with BCI, to study the best way to make bridges habitable for bats. It is estimated that the bats consume between 10,000 to 30,000 POUNDS of insects each night. Bats are not flying rats or mice, they are not even rodents. They're mammals, just like us. Bats are vital to our planet, environment and human existence. For more information and to support the protection of these wonderful creatures, visit http://www.batcon.org Information and quelling myths about bats and Rabies HERE