FAMILY FUN Bracken Cave Bats
! y t t a B g n i Go By Janis Turk
g And Battin s t a B h t o B y ight To Enjo n o T t u O s Take The Kid
IT IS JUST JUNE! THE KIDS HAVE BEEN ON SUMMER VACATION FOR LESS THAN A MONTH, AND ALREADY THEY ARE DRIVING YOU BATTY? OH NO, WHAT TO DO? WHY, GO BATTY WITH THEM, OF COURSE. Because bats are generally nocturnal, being most active after sundown, they tend to emerge from their dark roosts a couple hours after dusk in order to go find their dinner. After feeding, they return to their roosts to spend the rest of the night and day hanging upside down—usually from the top of a cave, the bottom of a bridge, or the eaves of a building. Do not be scared. Bats are our friends. Summer is the time to go bat loco in And all they are interested in eating or San Antonio! bugging are bugs—moths, mosquitos and other insects, for instance. In BAT CRAZY fact, one bat alone is capable of eating Start in the evening so you will be Photo courtesy of up to 1,200 mosquitoes in a single hour! ready around nightfall. Texas is home Texas Parks & Wildlife. Bats are the only known mammals to have to enormous colonies of Mexican free-tail developed the ability to fly, and the Mexican bats, little brown bats, some vampire bats, free-tailed bats we see in San Antonio can reach and lots of other species, too. And right here in San Antonio, if you know where to look, you are bound to see more speeds up to 99 miles per hour in the air and fly as high as 10,000 feet. Cool, right? than a few. No, do not misbehave. Just redirect their education and energy to interesting and active batty things to do together on summer evenings, like watching flying mammals for instance. Who knew bats could be so spooky yet still so cool? Or “go to bat” at a ballpark or in a batting cage.
16 RIO Magazine
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