Chehaw builds new bat condominium - WALB.com, Albany News, Weather, Sports

Chehaw builds new bat condominium

Updated:
(Source: Texas Your news Now) (Source: Texas Your news Now)

Information from Chehaw Park

Chehaw will be erecting a special bat condo for Mexican Free Tailed Bats tomorrow.  These bats, which already reside at Chehaw, typically live in the Southern U.S. and Mexico and are active year round.  

The official name of the new roost is Casa de Luna which means House of the Moon, a reference to the nightly departures the bats make for feeding.  Casa de Luna could house approximately 56,000 bats per night. 

These bats prefer arid conditions, live in caves and abandoned mines, and commonly roost in buildings, under bridges and in attics of houses.  The colonies provide a major form of agricultural pest control, consuming tons of insects nightly.

 When leaving their roosts to feed, they're known to form spectacular columns.  The most impressive flights occur after the young begin to emerge with the adults in August and September. 

Many have likened the sound of the thousands of wings beating in the air to that of a white water river. Another interesting fact is that because they pollinate sugar cane and consume insects that damage sugar cane, Bacardi rum features the Mexican free tailed bat as its icon.