Urban Bats

Forty years ago, bridge renovations in Austin, Texas attracted an unwelcome visitor – in fact over a million of them. Engineers had run support beams under the entire length of the bridge. Small slits between the beams opened into deep crevices … Just like those preferred by the Mexican freetail bat in their native habitat. Soon a huge colony lived under the bridge. And many Austin residents wanted them out. They had heard horror stories – bats spread disease! They might bite us! But Merlin Tuttle, a bat ecologist, knew they were not only harmless, but beneficial. Mexican freetails are insect eaters. Each evening this colony consumed more than 10 tons of mosquitoes and agricultural pests. The bats not only made Austin evenings more pleasant. They saved farmers downriver billions of dollars in crop losses and pesticides. Tuttle took live bats to show journalists, business leaders and schools – who largely found them adorable. He explained how they were good neighbors. Opinion began to change…and more visitors came. Humans this time, wanting to see the bats. Which brought two more benefits: tourism revenue, and civic pride -- of having the world’s largest urban bat colony.