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Around 1,500 Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) were collected and nursed at the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
Photo: Elizabeth Conley/AP
The fact that temperatures in Texas fell below zero last week was not only a shock for people: Hundreds of bats suffered a cold shock and lost their footing under the Waugh Bridge in Houston.
They tumbled to the ground and were picked up one by one by members of the Houston Humane Society.
In all, the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center rescued 1,544 Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) as of Wednesday, center director Mary Warwick said in a video posted to Facebook.
Some of the animals were recovering in the attic of their home.
60 bats still need to be supplied with liquid and are in an incubator to be warmed there.
The others had been cooled down again so that their bodies would slow down and they only needed to drink, not eat.
"It's very difficult to feed bats in captivity because they usually eat while flying," says Warwick.
Nearly 700 of the rescued bats are scheduled to be released back into the wild on Wednesday, she said.
A Facebook event was even created for this.
The animal welfare organization is now trying to raise money to add a bat room to the facility, Warwick said.
"That would be a great help, since we'll probably be confronted with weather conditions like this again and again in the future," she said.
Mexican free-tailed bats from Texas also became known via the Austin Bat Bridge.
Hundreds of thousands of animals live there, and they take off almost simultaneously every evening – a spectacle that now attracts tourists.
mgo/AP