Bat Emergence
Drought was definitely on our brains this year, especially during the very hot and dry summer of 2011. Researchers from Boston University returned for their annual censusing of our population and the last one conducted showed 160,000 bats in early July. We anticipated the lack of insects and water would hurt our population, but interestingly enough in the late summer we witnessed a noticeable increase in emergence numbers, although this was not officially documented by the Boston researchers. When, at the end of September, we finally recorded measurable rainfall, the emergences grew even stronger – making that nightly phenomenon the best the ranch has ever seen! The staff has hypothesized that the timing of the rains increased the insect population around the ranch and because we still had some surface water in our lakes, extra bats may have moved in from other areas. The bats finally migrated back to Mexico at the end of October.
