During American winters, bats freeze in trees

Mark Felix/AFP/Metzul Meteorology

A rescue fit for Batman: About 700 bats hit by a cold wave in the US returned to their natural habitat in Texas on Wednesday night. Freedom was achieved after six days of heat treatment and intensive care for some.

Houston Humane Society (HHS), an animal welfare NGO, released the animals under a bridge in Houston, Texas. Considered one of the most abundant mammals in North America, these free-tailed bats (Tatarida brasiliensis) are essential for pest control.

Last week, snow and unusual temperatures for the region caused “hypothermic shock” in the colony of animals. The NGO reported that the bats were unable to attach themselves to the structure of the buildings and fell from a height of five to ten meters.

On average, these mammals weigh 13 grams and are 10 to 12 centimeters long, “small, underweight and not prone to lying on the ground in subzero temperatures for very long,” HHS explained on its Facebook page.

Volunteers helped collect the animals and more than 1,500 bats were cared for by the organization over the weekend, which were housed at the refuge and in the cabin of Mary Warwick, the organization’s director of wildlife.

Most needed only warmth and hydration, but the most severely affected were placed in incubators and fed intravenously. “Surprisingly, most of the bats survived,” HHS noted.

Mark Felix/AFP/Metzul Meteorology

As temperatures returned to moderate this week, around 22ºC on Wednesday (28), the NGO released “about 700” bats at dusk, when the animals fly out to hunt insects at night. The administrators of the organization said that they will soon do the same for others.

Bat watching is a popular pastime in Texas, where many bats are home to large colonies. Houston’s Waugh Bridge, Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge, and San Antonio’s Camden Street Riverwalk Bridge attract visitors at dusk as bats depart in droves for their nocturnal hunts.