BAT WORLD SANCTUARY

Happy #batappreciationday! ❤🦇

If your day includes soap, shampoo, cosmetics, a toothbrush and toothpaste, coffee, margarine, paper or ink, cushions, wood furniture, fuel or lubricating fluids, rope or twine, timber, boats or canoes, ornamental trees, life saving medicines, air fresheners, candles, rubber, chewing gum, spices, vegetables, fruits, chocolate or even margaritas or beer, you are not only involved with bats, you are dependent upon bats. Bats pollinate or disperse the seeds of many valuable plants and trees including wild banana, avocado, date, fig, mango, eucalyptus and balsa wood, just to name a few. It is the fruit bats that are responsible for 98% of the reforestation of the world`s rain forests (the lungs of our planet). Without fruit bats we would lose entire forests without felling a single tree.

About seventy percent of all bats are insect eaters that feed on a tremendous diversity of bugs including the pests that consume the crops we need to survive. Each bat is capable of eating a whopping 5,000 insects per night; a lactating female will eat twice that amount. The 20 million bats (the single largest warm blooded mammal colony population on earth), that roost at Bracken Cave in Texas, eat 200 tons of insects each summer evening. Bats eat crop pests that cost farmers billions of dollars annually. Insect control by bats keeps down prices of fruits and vegetables at the market place.

Bats are a keystone species and they have long played essential roles in our lives. Their loss today would compromise the health and stability of our environment. Bat Appreciation Day is a tribute to these little agricultural vacuum cleaners in the sky, controllers of fruit flies, dispersers of seeds, and pollinators of products we both need and desire.

We had to share one of our favorite photos from @Bat World Bulgaria again, because we also appreciate just how stinking cute bats are! 😁

Thank you, dear bats, we would be lost without you.

Thank goodness for Austin Bat Refuge! 👏👏👏 they saw our post and, being closer to San Antonio than we are, immediately went into action. The bats are now FREE thanks to Lee at Austin Bat Refuge!!!🙌

Thank you as well to everyone who helped with this effort, including the local San Antonio news reporters who reported on the potentially tragic event. 🙏🦇

#savethebats!

URGENT HELP NEEDED TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF BATS!

Please read this in its entirety and PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD: Yesterday evening we learned of a large colony of pregnant free-tailed bats who were sealed into an apartment complex. This photo is a small sampling of the areas that were foamed. The bats have been living there peacefully for years, however, a new tenant complained and the apartment complex took drastic measures. Rather than doing a safe and humane exclusion (eviction) of the bats, they instead decided to use spray foam to entomb the bats in hopes they will slowly die. The police in San Antonio were contacted, and allegedly cites a NONEXISTANT law of USFWS, that the bats should be killed when inside a building. To add to this, Texas Parks and Wildlife allow the indiscriminate killings of bats when they are inside a building occupied by humans.However, sealing the bats in will not work. They will not just stay there and slowly die, they will try to escape and end up INSIDE apartments, where they are likely to come into contact with children and pets. If an exposure occurs, the apartment complex and associated owners will be liable. Another issue is that thousands of decaying bodies will end up inside the walls and ceiling of the apartments, causing a horrible odor issue that will not dissipate until the walls and ceiling are torn down and replaced. The last time and apartment complex did this, they were forced to relocate all of their tenants into hotels at the apartment owners expense. ALL OF THIS CAN BE AVOIDED IF THEY SIMPLY REMOVE THE FOAM AND THEN PERFORM A HUMANE BAT EXCLUSION.
The apartment complex and the property owners do not have Facebook pages so we are encouraging folks to contact these companies through the information below. It is not too late to save the bats so please act quickly! THE FOAM MUST COME DOWN!

Hillside Manor Apartments
501 Koehler Ct, San Antonio, TX 78223
(210) 533-9480
Google page for reviews:
https://www.google.com/search...
Water Meadow Properties (aka Paloma Properties - owns Hillside Manor Apartments)
Better Business Bureau reviews: https://www.bbb.org/.../palima-properties-llc-water...
News 4 San Antonio
KENS 5 & Ke

Happy #batbootyfriday

Bat booty Friday is presented to you by Charlie a rescued evening bat. Charlie has been working on his flight over this past month and with all that practicing he is developing some pretty strong glutes. 😂