Austin Bat Refuge

We provide direct loving care for hundreds of bats. Injured orphaned or displaced due to a variety of circumstances all were given the opportunity to heal recover and return to the wild in most cases. Bats that could not support themselves in the wild have a home with Austin Bat Refuge for the remainder of their lives. Each rescue is an educational opportunity for the people who find bats in trouble and for their families and is leveraged through our social media. We continued our quest to divert bats that have had no contact with people or pets from certain euthanasia by some county animal control agencies. With donations from the public and small grants we maintain an intake area that allows for separation and quarantine of bat species that are vulnerable to White-nose Syndrome. In 2022 winter storms once again caused many bats to fall to the ground cold-stunned. We collected just over 1,000 Mexican free-tailed bats from nine local bridges and shopping centers after the late-December storm. Many did not survive the freeze but 136 came to life when warmed up and 128 of them were released.

In 2022 we continued to answer calls about bats roosting in buildings advising homeowners and businesses on how the bats may have entered the building and how if necessary to safely remove them. The bulk of our time spent on conflict resolution issues however went towards two ongoing projects impacting the welfare of millions of bats: the looming demolition of the Huntsville Prison Unit warehouse and the development of the land next to Congress Avenue Bridge. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has long planned to tear down the abandoned cotton warehouse that over the years has become home to as many as a million bats. We spent many hours in 2022 communicating with TDCJ personnel Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists and NM bat specialist Justin Stevenson both on-site and virtually on how best to safeguard the bat and human residents of Huntsville. The future of the Huntsville bat colony is precarious but we continue to be available to help as requested by the stakeholders. Closer to home the Congress Avenue Bridge colony also required careful consideration. In 2022 we collaborated with Bat Conservation International and Merlin Tuttle's Bat Conservation to draft recommendations for protecting the bridge's colony once the first phase of the South Central Waterfront Development breaks ground near the bridge.

We provide public education programs in Central Texas that promote appreciation for bats as crucial members of local ecosystems. Some of our non-releasable bats come with us to programs for schools master naturalist chapters TX Department of State Health Services classes animal control officers and wildlife management professionals. We also host an education table on weekends from March through October at Congress Avenue Bridge where thousands of tourists and locals gather to watch and learn about Austin's famous colony of Mexican Brazilian free-tail bats. The return of in-person events was exciting for us and we showered folks with bat facts at many different events in 2022 including ones put on by the following organizations: City of Kyle Elisabet Ney Museum Good Water Master Naturalists Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Patagonia Patterson Park Community Garden Roadway Productions Save Our Springs Alliance Spicewood Elementary Texas Wildlife Association Waterloo Greenway and Zilker Botanical Gardens. In August Austin was host to loads of bat-loving scientists attending the 19th International Bat Research Conference IBRC and the 50th Annual North American Symposium on Bat Research NASBR. As part of the joint meeting we offered tours to conference attendees. We hosted more than 70 scientists over the course of 10 days. We were happy to host reporters and filmmakers at the refuge this year. Sadly as in 2021 some media interviews were about how freezing weather hurt local bat populations. Other stories focused on why it's important to protect bats and that's something we're always excited to talk about. Some intrepid cameramen braved the heat to set up shop in our outdoor flight cage; it was great to have the company and share the bats' stories with them.