"Bamberger's Folly"

This may be an old story to those more familiar with all we have to show here on the ranch. ~ Forgive me please if this is the case.

I served nine years on the Board of BCI – that’s Bat Conservation International – headquartered in Austin, Texas. My biggest contribution to that wonderful organization was working with the extended family some whom owned Bracken Cave and all of whom owned all the land surrounding it. After the purchase was completed, I was appointed to the chairmanship of Bracken Cave and as such recruited volunteers to make the sight more visitor friendly by building trails, “remodeling” old buildings, developing interpretive signs and primitive seating. When Margaret came into my life, we conceived the idea of “members only” night and handled all the communications and logistics which were necessary to bring BCI members to see the spectacular one hour emergence of an estimated twenty million Mexican Free-tailed bats (Chiroptera molossidae Tadarida brasiliensis). My son, David, and I along with our volunteers from the Bexar Grotto handled everything for three years. It was during this time that I came up with the idea of building a cave! Sounds kinda oddball doesn’t it? The Bexar Grotto – a group of cavers, had searched the ranch (Selah) very thoroughly in the hope that we had an accessible cave. We had a number of indications of underground caverns, but they were unable to open any of them.

What I wanted to demonstrate was that manmade habitat could mitigate the damage that man was causing to the environment with our highways, high wire lines, shopping centers and subdivisions.

From the very beginning in 1997 the building of a cave made me look like a crackpot. There’s a lot more to this story than time or space allows on this posting, but I’ll go on and briefly get to the good stuff. We consulted with many well respected bat biologists to get help in designing our cave. We took all of their advice and surprisingly all were really intrigued over the project and thought it would attract bats. Upon looking at our home drawn plans, the scientists estimated our cave could host one million bats!

Bats, in science, are in an order called Chiroptera – it basically means “hand winged.” Margaret and my son, David, came up with the name “Chiroptorium” a contraction of chiroptera and auditorium. David even submitted it to our three leading dictionaries – that’s another story – but I believe you’ll soon see it as an accepted word.

Since there wasn’t a war on in 1997 and 1998 when we were building our cave and the economy was not faltering and unemployment was not a problem, the media folks were hungry for something to report on. Some found us and that lead to another and another and another from local television, newspapers across the country, magazines – local and national, to The New York Times, National Public Radio then to Europe. Delegations came from Japan to see it as well as from a few cities in Texas. The only thing that didn’t come were bats! Well, a few did but they didn’t stay – and that’s another story, too.

As you would expect a good reporter to do, after a few years they check back to see how this grand experiment was performing. Getting fatigued on my evasive answer to the question, “How many bats do you have?” which was “I can’t really tell you, but they cost me one thousand dollars each,” one reported and others followed calling what is now our very successful chiroptorium “Bamberger’s Folly.”

Chiroptorium on June 30, 2009. Photograph taken by J. David.

The population began building in the later summer of 2003. It was almost like they found the chiroptorium overnight. Biologists told me they could have been a migrating group and not to expect them back. The number was estimated at 20,000.

Scientist and Wanna-be Scientists. Left to right: Lauren Snyder, Boston University, Biology major; Kristen Lear, Ohio Weslyan, Zoology major; Dr. Gary McCracken, bat biologist and head of the Department of Biology, University of Tennessee and also scientific advisor to the Bamberger Ranch Preserve; Elizabeth Braun de Torrez, Ph.D. candidate Boston University; Dan Katz, Bard College undergrad, starting Ph. D. at University of Michigan Forest Ecology and Cory, David’s dog. Photograph taken by J. David.

In 2004 scientists began developing a system that could count bats as they emerged from caves. Their work centered here at Selah. What developed was an infrared computerized camera system that took the pictures and a logarithm system that worked in conjunction that would count all those white dots that the infrared saw. This was quite an accomplishment. The project was under the direction of Dr. Tom Kunz of Boston University with a grant from The National Science Foundation. Ph.D. candidates and undergrads are here on the first of every month, April through October, conducting our census.

Learning about the Research. Photograph taken by J. David.

Elizabeth Braun de Torrez, left, is the lead person on the census this year. She is a Ph. D. candidate at Boston University. Some of the equipment can be seen on left corner of the photo. Here she is explaining her work with Colleen Gardner, our Executive Director. Notice her journal in her hand.

Kristen Lear and Lauren Snyder undergrads who are along to learn and to assist Liz Braun de Torrez. Photograph taken by J. David.

Here you can see $75,000 worth of equipment. The infrared camera is left foreground. What a wonderful opportunity and experience for the young people to spend their summer.

Still Attracting Publicity. Photograph taken by J. David.

National Public Radio KUT 90.5 in Austin sent journalist Erica Aguilar to observe and report on the research. Here she is taping Liz for the program which will air on two days the week of July 5th.

Awesome! I never get tired of this! Photograph taken by J. David.

The May 30th census recorded 54,000+. Liz reported that from her observation there were 3,000 of another species named Cave Myotis . These are easily identified in flight as they have shorter wings and fly low under trees. I have even had them brush my shoulder as they flew by.

NOW HEAR THIS!!

It’s to be our First Annual Bat-a-Thon. Check our website July 15th. Win our Chiroptorium tee shirt and someone will win the privilege of bringing 10 of your friends to Selah for an emergence. I’ll personally host you and tell all the stories I skipped over at the beginning of this posting. Check the ranch's website starting July 15.

More About Bats, and Selah Winter Bird Count

A Little More About Bats

Illustration by Margie Crisp which is part of a larger illustration used on a T-shirt.Note the "free-tail" that reaches beyond the membrane.

This illustration of a bat-wing shows the arm bones and finger bones and how, with a membrane stretched across them, they form a wing. (Adapted from Bats, by M. Brock Fenton).

Photograph by M Bamberger, cropped and manipulated to bring out details in the wings

Recently, researchers who went into the Chiroptorium informed us that the wooden boxes inside the cave were full of Mexican Free-tailed bats. We knew there were bats in them, but assumed that they were Cave Myotis, another species of bats that share caves with Mexican Free-tailed bats, that frequently stay in Texas during the cold months. This is very interesting, and we are wondering if the bats have a source of food. Dr. Kunz told us he would like to come back soon and try to find out what, if anything the bats are eating. I'll include such information in a future blog when and if we find out.

The image above is a close-ups of part of an image that was in the most recent blog of January 11. Chris Johnson suggested that there might be information in the digital image that could be brought out with manipulation. So I tried, and now you can actually see bones of their fingers- which are the reason that bats belong to the order Chiroptera which means "hand-wing". Their fingers hold and shape their wing membranes, most clearly in the bat at the upper right of the picture. I am surprised by this, and excited because it was late afternoon when I took it, the light was poor, and they were flying by very rapidly. You can also see a little tail extending past the membrane between their feet, which explains Free-tailed as part of their name. Many species of bats don't have any portion of their tail extending beyond their feet.

Winter Bird Count Spots a Total of 42 Species

We held our Winter Bird Count today, which is one of three counts we hold each year and have been doing so for 7 years now. The weather is usually cold in January and we frequently get low numbers of species, especially when we have a stiff wind and/or rain. This year it was cold and windy, but clear.

The volunteer birders are led by Marsha May who is an excellent and avid birder. She is president of Travis Audubon Society, which is a big job and I have heard that she is doing an excellent job. Marsha is the person who communicates with our volunteers to let them know when bird counts are scheduled. We invite those that are interested to arrive the night before, bring a dish and join in the "pot luck" dinner, followed by a night hike, a slide show, or just sitting around the fire chatting. Bunks are available for our overnight guests in the dormitory wings of The Center.

The adventure starts at dawn, and the groups are out on their area when the sun comes up. Each group has a person who knows the ranch roads, a very good birder that knows birds by sound as well as sight, and one or two people interested in learning more about birds. We drive to interesting areas, and frequently walk to good sites. We bird until noon, when we return to The Center.

The "count-down" determines the total number of species seen and if a new species to the ranch was observed. A representative of each group indicates whether or not a bird was seen when Marsha reads the list out loud. We had five groups out on Sunday, which cover a large portion of the 5500 acres of the ranch. We look for birds in broad valleys, along creeks, lakes and tanks (Texas speak for ponds), open fields, canyons, brushy hillsides, and the flat remnants of the Edwards Plateau which are our "hill tops". Thus most of the different habitats are checked. Without exception, no one group sees all the birds that are identified during a bird count.

Below is a photograph of most of the participants, and including the two that didn't go with a group. (Margaret and J. David showed up for the count-down).

Birders for Winter Count, January 20, 2008

J. David Bamberger and our new employee in Education at BRP, Justin Duke.

Marsha May conducts the Count Down for the day.

Birds seen on 1/20/08 that had been seen on other Winter Bird Counts:
Wild Turkey, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, American Coot, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Ladder-backed Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Western Scrub-Jay, Common Raven, Carolina Chickadee, Black-crested Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Bewick's Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, Orange-crowned Warbler, Spotted Towhee, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Meadowlark, House Finch, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch

Birds seen that had not been seen on previous winter counts: Crested Caracara, American Woodcock, Pryrrhyloxia

New bird for Selah: LeConte's Sparrow

Photographs taken by Margaret Bamberger on 1/20/08.

Crazy About Bats!

Bats, the Chiroptorium, and bat researchers.

The Chiroptorium is our man-made bat cave. Chiroptera is the order for bats in the family of Mammals, which is the origin for the first part of the name Chiroptorium. The second part of the name "torium" comes from the end of auditorium which is a large place for a gathering. So, Chiroptorium is a large place for bats to gather. In March each spring, Mexican Free-tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) arrive in large numbers from their winter homes in Mexico, Central and South America. Because our cave is a nursery colony, most of the bats are pregnant females. They leave each evening as the sun sets to find food, which is lots of flying insects, especially moths.

In the middle of June one baby is born to each mother bat. The babies, naked, pink and flightless, are deposited in a contiguous area on the ceiling or wall of their cave. The heat generated by all the close bat-bodies (up to 400 per square foot) help to keep them warm. Mothers leave their babies in the cave when out hunting for food at night. Each mom relocates her baby by calling to her pup when she returns. As she gets close she can also smell her offspring. Her milk is rich and high in fat, and her baby grows quickly, and within a month the pups are nearly as big as an adult, furred and ready to fly and feed on their own.

Dr. Gary McCracken on the left in the above photo, has done a lot of research in Texas, which has increased our understanding about Mexican Free-tailed bats, how they live, what they eat, and how important they are to agriculture. Using weather balloons with echolocation sensors on them, he was able to find out that free-tailed bats find and fly into clouds of migrating moths that they love to eat, and which provide them with important nutrition. These moths lay their eggs on corn, cotton and other crops, and the caterpillars eat the developing plants. Therefore having bats eat lots of moths before they have a chance to lay their eggs is beneficial to farmers.

The huge colonies of Mexican Free-tailed bats in Central Texas live mostly in caves, but are also found under bridges like the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, and in culverts. When an continuous stream of bats emerge in the evenings for many minutes, and even hours, it is hard to imagine how many bats are flying in front of you. Until the last few years there was no way to accurately count the numbers, until Dr. Tom Kunz, from Boston University, on the right in the picture above, developed a method using infrared video photography and computers. A continual infrared image of the bats emerging from the mouth of a cave, in which the warm bodies of the bats appear like little white dots moving against a dark background is read by a computer and the total number calculated.

One of Dr. Kunz's post-doctoral students, Dr. Nickolay Hristov, shown with his new Belgium sheep-dog three month old puppy, Coda, and another graduate student, seen below, Louise Allen came to The Bamberger Ranch in 2004 and conducted a count. The next spring they started a regular once a month count of our bats during the time the bats are in Texas. I remember the early counts were below 10,000 bats. However, we were thrilled when we realized that there were babies in the cave, which meant that even though the numbers were small, we had a nursery colony. Each year since then the numbers have increased dramatically and this year after the babies were flying the number reached 121,000.

Louise Allen-Hristova, who is now married to Nick, had also been researching the effects of stress on the growth of young bats. She has finished collecting information for her dissertation, and is now writing it. She will be awarded her Ph.D. soon.

Another doctoral graduate students of Dr. Kunz that has worked on our counts is Jon Reichard, seen above with his wife Jen who is an 8th grade science teacher. That's J. David Bamberger smiling on the right.

The research by Dr. Kunz's team has included counts on many of the Central Texas caves as well as Carlsbad Cave in New Mexico. This has added an important chapter to our knowledge of bats. We certainly thank them for their work here at Bamberger Ranch Preserve, and for their friendship.

Bat Conservation International (BCI), whose headquarters are in Austin, has a great deal of information about bats in Texas that is available to the public, both on line and in books that are for sale from their bookstore, which is also on line. In the months when there are nightly emergences from the Congress Avenue Bridge over Lady Bird Lake, there are specialists from BCI there to tell you about the lives of bats and how important they are to humans. It is a wonderful show, and I recommend that you get out and see it.