Dear friends,

The last few weeks have been filled with dozens of bat releases, one of our favorite parts of the job. We received a great question about our releases during our recent presentation for Nerd Nite Austin: How do you decide where to release bats? Well, it all depends on the species.

• Mexican free-tailed bats are released at Congress Avenue Bridge, where they can join a million of their closest friends.
• Eastern red bats return to Austin’s neighborhoods to happily roost in the trees right over our heads.
• Seminole bats make the trek out to the areas east of Austin, like Bastrop, where pine trees abound.
• Yellow bats (both southern and northern species) are released in areas that contain a good amount of palm trees, their favorite roosting spot.

If a bat came from far outside of Austin, we make sure to release him or her where they were found. For instance, Bo and BD, the amazing pallid bats in our care right now, will be released in West Texas. These boys were found in an oil field and are becoming expert flyers after months in our flight cage. We really have to pinch ourselves; it’s been an honor to get to know these incredible bats.

Tri-colored bats are another fairly rare sight at the refuge, but we recently took in three in the span of two days. These incredibly fast, tiny bats are so fun to watch in the flight cage. Here’s a look at one of our recent tri-colored bat releases:

Now for a quick update on what’s happening with Austin’s largest wild bat population, the Mexican free-tailed bats. The free-tails that raised their babies in Central Texas over the summer are preparing to migrate south to Mexico. In their stead, free-tails from Kansas and Oklahoma will take up residence at Congress Avenue Bridge and other local roosts during the winter. These migrations could lead to more bat intakes at the refuge, so if you’re able to donate, we’d greatly appreciate it!

We’ll end this newsletter with an exciting update: Our work will be featured in That Animal Rescue Show, a docuseries executive produced by award-winning filmmaker Richard Linklater. It premieres October 29 on CBS All Access, and we’re featured in Episode 8. We hope you’ll tune in! Also, happy early Bat Week (October 24-31)!


Your fellow bat lovers,

Dianne and Lee
Co-founders of Austin Bat Refuge