Photography

rdking647

(5,113 posts) Sun Jul 13, 2014, 10:31 AM Jul 2014

Bats,bats and more bats

went to the old tunnel state park in texas yesterday. its an old railroad tunnel that is home to up to 3 million bats in the summer. currently there are about 1 million living there ,the rest will be their in late august/september.
everyday around sunset they emerge to go hunt insects. they eat an estimated 100 million insects a night

this is the tunnel

and heres the bats.

heres a 45 second video i took of the bats emerging. you can hear their wings beating and we could feel the breeze from their wings

i hope to go to bracken cave near san antonio later this year which has an estimated 20 million bats living in it. they only offer a few tours a year so i have to plan ahead

8 replies

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Bats,bats and more bats (Original Post) rdking647 Jul 2014 OP

what a sight! Celebration Jul 2014 #1

Fabulous!! CrispyQ Jul 2014 #2

its estimated these bats eat 15 TONS of insects every night rdking647 Jul 2014 #3

Wow - that's a lot of bats! ohheckyeah Jul 2014 #4

You had quite a bit of light there. Curmudgeoness Jul 2014 #5

the emergence time depends on the food supply rdking647 Jul 2014 #6

I didn't know that. Curmudgeoness Jul 2014 #7

OMG rdking647 - who knew? Mira Jul 2014 #8

Celebration

(15,812 posts)

1. what a sight!

Reply to rdking647 (Original post)

Sun Jul 13, 2014, 10:47 AM

Jul 2014

Last edited Sun Jul 13, 2014, 01:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Just love the video. Want to see in person!

CrispyQ

(36,469 posts)

2. Fabulous!!

Reply to rdking647 (Original post)

Sun Jul 13, 2014, 11:26 AM

Jul 2014

Love that first shot - so pretty, so peaceful, and then . . .

Thanks for sharing!

rdking647

(5,113 posts)

3. its estimated these bats eat 15 TONS of insects every night

Reply to rdking647 (Original post)

Sun Jul 13, 2014, 12:17 PM

Jul 2014

and this is just one cave. at bracken cave it closer to 250-300 tons every night

ohheckyeah

(9,314 posts)

4. Wow - that's a lot of bats!

Reply to rdking647 (Original post)

Sun Jul 13, 2014, 04:02 PM

Jul 2014

Very nice photos and video. I don't think I could be that close to all of those bats - it would make me twitchy.

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)

5. You had quite a bit of light there.

Reply to rdking647 (Original post)

Mon Jul 14, 2014, 06:49 PM

Jul 2014

I remember going to a bridge in Houston where a colony of bats reside, but it was much more dusky by the time they came out in numbers. We were lucky that a biology professor was there with red film over flashlights for us to see the extent of the exodus. I was in awe.

rdking647

(5,113 posts)

6. the emergence time depends on the food supply

Reply to Curmudgeoness (Reply #5)

Mon Jul 14, 2014, 09:41 PM

Jul 2014

when food is abundant (which usually means we had recent rain so theirs a lot of insects) they tend to come out later

weve had no rain for a couple of weeks so they are coming out 15 minutes or so before sunset

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)

7. I didn't know that.

Reply to rdking647 (Reply #6)

Mon Jul 14, 2014, 09:44 PM

Jul 2014

I will remember that if I go looking for a bat feeding frenzy again.

So cool.

Mira

(22,380 posts)

8. OMG rdking647 - who knew?

Reply to rdking647 (Original post)

Mon Jul 14, 2014, 11:28 PM

Jul 2014

We have a place in NC called Bat Cave. I will now ALWAYS pass it on the interstate because I know I could not survive witnessing what you showed us.
AWESOME.
Great work.

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