Getting Up Close and Personal with Texas Bats

by Shaena Montanari

ust like her dad did in 2000, Austin, Texas, high school senior Jasalyn Franco joined Austin Youth River Watch. The group provides hands-on environmental education for high school students. Last summer, Bat Conservation International helped the group put on a “bat week” program that Franco and other students participated in to learn more about bats.

We were able to see bats in person at the Austin Youth River Watch office. I thought they were kind of cute! I had never seen one up close. We also go on camping trips with River Watch, so we took one to Bracken Cave in San Antonio. They have the largest bat colony in the world. We had another opportunity to go to the Congress Avenue Bridge and take a boat under the bridge to see the bats come out.

Bracken Cave was the most interesting. There were a whole bunch of bats, and it was cool to watch them fly out. They flew out for like 15 minutes. I took a video, and it felt like it wouldn’t end. I didn’t expect how strongly the cave would smell of guano. People were starting to get headaches, and they were like, “I can’t take the smell!” Congress Avenue Bridge is cool, but after going to Bracken Cave, nothing is as cool as that.

It was nice learning all these different things about bats. We got to see them and find out they’re actually kind of cute. I had heard rumors before about bats that aren’t true, like about vampire bats. I heard that, but I never really learned more about it. It was good to learn actual facts about bats. Now I think they’re cute.