April 2008, my first trip to Bracken Bat Cave
Fun in front of the cave
A little bat on the path
For at least
the first part of this blog post, I’m going to put my upcoming Africa trip
aside to talk about one of my favorite places in the world- Bracken Bat Cave.
I’m lucky enough to not only live near the largest bat colony in the world,
but, through working at the zoo, I’ve also been able to visit the area many
times, even though it’s not open to the public. Saturday was one of the days
that I got to do just that. First, here’s some simple background on the cave
itself. As I mentioned, Bracken Bat Cave is the largest colony of bats in the
world. In fact, in terms of population, it’s the largest colony of any mammal
in the world! Pretty cool that it’s so close to where I live. Bracken is a
maternity colony, so pregnant female bats live there from early spring to about
October, when they fly to Mexico for the winter. During the warmer months of
the year, there are about 20 million bats living in that cave. Every night
around sunset they’ll fly out and spend the night eating mainly moths- the
Mexican free-tailed bats that live at Bracken will eat literally thousands of
pounds of moths every single night. Like I said, the cave is not open to the
public. It’s on private property that’s owned and managed by Bat Conservation
International, or BCI. However, zoo volunteers and employees are allowed to go
there a few times a year. We spend the day moving brush off the paths and
cleaning up the area, then get to watch the bat emergence as a reward!
Okay, so
most zoo people that read my blog already knew that stuff, so enough
background. I first came to Bracken Bat Cave in 2008, when I was 15 years old.
Since then, I’ve come at least once a year (sometimes twice)- I think Saturday
was my tenth or eleventh time out there. I know one thing’s for sure- that
place never gets old! I’ll definitely never forget my first time watching that
bat emergence back in 2008. Sitting on the rocks at the top of the sinkhole
that leads into the cave, watching the bats come out in this big vortex, then
fly right over my head truly was an experience of a lifetime. In the years
since that day, I’ve made so many more wonderful memories at Bracken, whether
it’s roasting hot dogs and s’mores after a day of working, singing Don’t Stop
Believing around the campfire, that time we camped out in February and it was
so cold one person’s phone literally froze, or, of course, watching a tornado
of millions of bats fly out of the cave at sunset. Bracken really is one of my
favorite places in the world, and spending Saturday there made me remember that
yet again! I also love Bracken because the area is home to many animals, not
just bats. In my time there I’ve seen deer, opossums, raccoons, coyotes,
skunks, scorpions, coachwhips (I saw three of those on Saturday!),
rattlesnakes, hawks, owls and more! That place is one of the many things I love
about living in Texas.
In the
nearly eight years that I’ve been involved with the zoo, it’s taken me to many
cool places. Whether it’s Bamberger Ranch Preserve, Fossil Rim Wildlife Center,
Sea Turtle Inc., Bracken Bat Cave, or any of the other wonderful places I’ve
been, I’ve had so many cool opportunities to explore wildlife with the zoo. I
definitely wouldn’t be the same person if I’d never put in my zoo team
application when I was 14.
Well, to
focus on my upcoming adventure for a bit- my countdown is now down to ten days
until I’m in Africa. TEN DAYS!!! I can’t believe how crazy that is! Last night
I watched Jaws (yes, I watched it two weeks before going cage diving with great
whites), and I was laughing at how incredibly inaccurate and ridiculous it was.
When I tell people what I’ll be doing in Africa, their response makes it clear
they think they know everything about great whites because they’ve seen that
movie. In a way, that’s pretty frustrating to me. Do you insist on going to
church every Sunday because you’ve seen The Exorcist? No. Do you refuse to
sleep because you’ve seen A Nightmare on Elm Street? No. Yet people seem to
look at Jaws as a scientifically accurate, documentary style movie. Let me say
this very clearly: it’s not.
I guess this
post is long enough. See you in ten days, Africa. This post’s food for thought:
“See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in
factories. Ask for no guarantees, ask for no security.”- Ray Bradbury
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