You Can Help Feed Us!  Give the gift that warms the heart and tickles   the tummy..bugs! Just call (800 322-1100) or  e-mail (sales@sunshinemealworms.com)        Sunshine Mealworms, make a donation to the Bat World Austin mealworm account.       The little critters at the hospital chow down on $3000 worth of mealworms every year! Even a small donation helps feed our hungry bats and our patients thank you!

   Great Bat T-shirts! Click here!

                 The Bat Lab is Open to Researchers and Graduate Students!  Click here for The Bat Lab!
          Teh-Sheng Ma, from the University of Texas Institute of Neurosciences records social calls of Mexican free-tailed bats.           

                            Welcome to the Austin Bat Hospital!

The hospital is located in the beautiful countryside of central Texas. Central Texas has everything from lakes and trees to prairie and grasslands. We can see the remains of an old volcano to the east and watch the most incredible sunsets to the west. Many kinds of wild animals live in this area. Everything from deer and fox to roadrunners and armadillos call this part of Texas home.

Central Texas is also home to millions of bats. The largest urban bat colony lives right here in the heart of Austin. About a million Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) roost under the Congress Avenue bridge. And the largest group of bats in Austin. An estimated 20 million free-tailed bats give birth to their babies there each summer. So there are lots of little bats that live near us, and the Austin Bat Hospital accepts over a hundred tiny patients brought to us each year.

Inside the Hospital

Click for larger image. To pan the entire image, scroll left and right. (NOTE: This image is quite large, and by default, Explorer will scale it down to a smaller size. To change the view to Full-size: On the menu bar, click "Tools", then "Internet Options", then "Advanced". You will find a checked box that says "Enable automatic image resizing". Uncheck the box and hit "Ok". The image should reload in its full-size)

The OR Treating injuries on tiny bats can be challenging. Some bats weigh barely 3 grams. Even a medium-sized bat in the U.S. is small, weighing between 10 to 20 grams, less than one ounce. Magnifying lens are needed to examine these little critters, and wildlife rehabilitators must find innovative ways to treat their injuries.

Here is the flight cage where recuperating bats regain flight stamina and where orphaned bat pups learn to fly and catch insects. It was originally a 60-foot green house. One section was removed and the 12-foot metal frame covered with one-quarter inch plastic mesh to allow insects to enter. Both incandescent and black lights are attached inside to attract a diversity of insects. In the summertime, the entire cage virtually fills with insects from top to bottom, so the youngsters get a lot of practice chasing bugs!

I've collected bat droppings from tarps placed on the ground inside the cage and sent them to Dr. John Whitaker at the University of Indiana for analysis of insect parts. Orphaned bats learn to catch insects on their own, although it takes them longer to learn than it would if they had a mother to teach them. By providing them with supplemental hand feedings, rehabbers can give them the extra time they need to become proficient at catching insects before they are released back into the wild.

For information about bats and bat conservation worldwide, see Bat Conservation International at: www.batcon.org.

Important Notice! Do NOT touch, feed, or attempt to care for wild bats. Like other wild animals, some bats contract rabies. Only trained professionals who have been vaccinated against rabies should care for bats. Rabies information is available at: www.cdc.gov.

All images are copyright to © Barbara French. By posting these images, no rights of distribution, transfer, rental, lease/lending, or preparation of derivative works, or reproduction in whole or in part, is granted. No text, graphics or photos may be downloaded and used on another Internet site or Newsgroups, without express written permission.