After the floods of Harvey, some Houstonians are joining the rescue efforts to save a nocturnal population in Houston:
Videos by Rare
The city’s famed bats.
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Alicia Plunkett is saving bats from drowning in Houston, as water reaches the top of bridges pic.twitter.com/wHnrbN3Sy8
— Jason Allen (@CBS11JasonAllen) August 27, 2017
Hundreds of thousands of bats live in the city, and anyone familiar with Houston is at least aware of the bat colony under Waugh Street Bridge.
The colony population is around 250,000, according to Popular Science, but their home under the bridge downtown is right over Buffalo Bayou.
Volunteers are working to save 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats that live underneath bridge from the Houston floodshttps://t.co/98PMZryETr pic.twitter.com/lzzOpmGbEK
— THV11 (@THV11) August 30, 2017
As floodwaters rose, thousands of bats took to the air to escape the water, some of them ending up on surrounding buildings like America Tower.
Even bats trying to get to higher ground in #Houston! My brother sent me video near Hwy. 59, tells me lots of critters/animals out. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/fqXSnJzeie
— Kara Sewell (@KaraSewellTV) August 27, 2017
Sadly, volunteers are finding a portion of the bats failed to escape.
Bats drop slightly before they start to gain any height after they first take off to fly; many of them potentially dropped into the water and found themselves trapped.
Thousands of bats are drowning in Houston — and that means "big trouble" https://t.co/FRDEytLYlo pic.twitter.com/8J4K0RZ2AA
— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 30, 2017
For the few that were lucky enough to hang on, workers took to scooping the bats out of the water and bringing them out of harm’s way.
One poster on Reddit started a thread to ask what they could do for bats they found stranded on the sidewalk, where users encouraged them, with a few words of caution as well.
One responder wrote, “…please be very careful when handling bats. Our winged friends are reservoirs of rabies and because they’re vulnerable, they may react defensively.”
As a staple of the bat’s diet is mosquitos, which will probably breed like crazy after the flood, its important to save as many of them as possible.
Bat World Sanctuary is offering to take in the rescued animals, and if you need or would like to help in Houston, read more here.
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Lots of space under Waugh Bridge this afternoon. I can hear bats under there. We'll need them when mosquitoes hit. #houstonflood #Houston pic.twitter.com/ozhk104vQd
— bradley quentin (@bquentin3) August 29, 2017