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CA NEWS
Bats off to
Sun City Texas!
By Jaime Calder
Next time someone tells you Above: The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has created a detailed guide
Texas is batty, don’t be offended to the state’s best bat viewing destinations. This free guide, which includes
– let them know they’re right! interesting bat facts and bat watching ettiquette tips, can be downloaded at
Texas not only boasts the nation’s http://tinyurl.com/batviewing.
largest variety of bats (33 different
species), it also houses the largest bat largest urban bat colony pour out from in pollinating plants such as sugarcane
colony on Earth down in San Antonio’s under the Congress Avenue Bridge in and blue agave (making margaritas
Bracken Cave. And of course, you’ve Downtown Austin. possible), and you can see why the
probably seen the crowds of onlookers animal’s fan base has grown.
who gather to watch the world’s From forests and grasslands to
sinkholes and caves, bats reside all Bat fever struck Sun City Texas
across Texas – even right here in back in the summer of 1996, when
Sun City Texas. Carved out by water a directional map detailing local bat-
flowing from Brushy Creek, the Bat viewing destinations was put out by
Well Cave is home to cave spiders, the the Community Association. The map
endangered Georgetown salamander must have been a hit because by the
and, yes, several hundred bats. following summer, the CA was offering
a Bat Cave Caravan to Old Tunnel State
Once derided as creepy, dirty Dracula Park to watch as over three million
cohorts, bats have received a lot of Mexican free-tailed and Cave myotis
praise in recent years, and deservedly bats emerged into the evening sky. The
so! These furry, flying mammals trip was offered again in August 2001,
fertilize soils, reduce the need for when 40 residents, guided by a park
chemical pesticides and put a big dent ranger, got close enough to feel the
in the mosquito population. Throw in wind off the bats’ wings as they flew
bats’ appetite for scorpions, centipedes into the sunset.
and wasps, as well as their critical role
Left: a clipping from the 1997 Sun Rays
shows an article promoting a planned
excursion to Sun City’s Bat Well Cave.
Right: A Mexican free-tailed bat
Special thanks to our 20th Anniversary Sponsors Del Webb, Suddenlink Communications and
Goodwater Wealth Management Group of Raymond James for thier support of the community and our anniversary celebrations.
14 | SUNRAYS OCTOBER 2016 ONLINE: SCTEXAS.ORG
