Roughly 2,000 bats are still recovering after suffering hypothermic shock during last week’s freeze that sent them falling from the Waugh Bridge. Today, however, hundreds of them will be released back into nature. On Friday, just two days before Christmas, Houston, much like the rest of the country, got smacked with winter weather that included […]
Tag: Mexican free-tailed bat
Seeing through the swarm: How hawks hunt bat prey
Raptors are famous for their ability to home in on prey and attack with precision. But how does this work when they hunt animals that flock, school or swarm, forming bewildering displays that appear to move everywhere all at once? A study published today in Nature Communications reports that Swainson’s hawks (Buteo swainsoni) and some […]
Notorious Bat Killer Found to Have a Weak Link
Mysterious cases of white-nose syndrome plague thousands of bats each year, frosting their snouts in toxic, white fungus. But researchers are fighting back against the dark reality—with light. A new study, published January 2 in the journal Nature Communications, shows that ultraviolet rays, the light source behind black lights and sunburns, irreparably break down the […]
Can Texas Protect Its Creepy, Tiny, Blind, Rare Wildlife?
San Antonio, Texas – A ritual of nature is happening in the woody hills around Austin and San Antonio. The first golden-cheeked warblers, with brilliant yellow faces streaked with black, have arrived from Mexico and Central America to raise their young. The Texas Hill Country is the only place on Earth where this little songbird, […]
Free-tailed funnel cloud (reprint from June 2011)
When Doppler radar first arrived in the area known affectionately to Texans as the Hill Country, the local television station meteorologists were understandably eager to show off the weather forecasting capabilities of their newest toy. Unfortunately, they got off to a less than impressive start. Night after night that summer, evening thunderstorms were forecast but […]