Sailcat
Fearless Spectator
A few weeks ago my son and I went on a guided visit to observe a large colony of bats emerge for a night's activity. The colony of approximately 250,000 Mexican Freetail and Brown Bats lives under a bridge in Northern California near Sacramento. The nice people who conducted the tour belong to a group dedicated to bat conservancy and protection, and they were informative and pleasant, indeed. In the pre-sunset afternoon, the discussion included information describing the local species, their life cycles, and habits. One of the surprising things we learned is that a female bat gives birth to one pup a year, and the young are dependent upon their mother for survival for quite a long time before they can forage on their own. This means that when a colony is disturbed or harmed, it can take a long time for it to recover, and sometimes the colony may not recover, but dies out or merges with another colony. As a result, as many as half of the bat species in North America are endangered, an unfortunate statistic.
As the sun set, the bats burst from under the bridge in three large groups. I say burst because the Mexican Freetail can fly at speeds of up to 65 mph, and these bats were moving quickly when they emerged. It wasn't quick enough for at least one hapless bat, however, as it was picked off by an opportunistic hawk that was waiting nearby. The bats streamed into the air in large clouds of swirling, frenzied activity, then headed for the horizon where they quickly disappeared from sight. The tour director said these bats will fly many miles away to hunting grounds rich in flying insects, at which point the males will consume half their weight and the gestating females will eat their entire weight in insects every day.
It was a very interesting evening and I would encourage everyone to become more aware of their local bat populations and support any local groups involved in their conservancy. If you're out birding, keep an eye out in the twilight for bats, for they are of interest, too!
As the sun set, the bats burst from under the bridge in three large groups. I say burst because the Mexican Freetail can fly at speeds of up to 65 mph, and these bats were moving quickly when they emerged. It wasn't quick enough for at least one hapless bat, however, as it was picked off by an opportunistic hawk that was waiting nearby. The bats streamed into the air in large clouds of swirling, frenzied activity, then headed for the horizon where they quickly disappeared from sight. The tour director said these bats will fly many miles away to hunting grounds rich in flying insects, at which point the males will consume half their weight and the gestating females will eat their entire weight in insects every day.
It was a very interesting evening and I would encourage everyone to become more aware of their local bat populations and support any local groups involved in their conservancy. If you're out birding, keep an eye out in the twilight for bats, for they are of interest, too!
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