Bats Like Crazy

November 12, 2007

One of the wonders of our natural world are the bats. Blind, they are able to maneuver at great speeds due to the power of their sonar abilities. Each night bats leave the protection of their cave, together, and manage somehow to not knock each other out of the air. They zip around on delicate wings, seeing the world through sound, not sight.

Our understanding of sonar itself is also pretty wondrous. Sonar, or Sound Navigation and Ranging, was a technology developed in response to the sinking of the Titanic. British and American military scientists co-opted the technology and quickly developed myriads of military applications for it.

It was still a relatively new and novel idea when it surfaced just before World War I. In a far different sphere, zoologists began to unravel the mystery of bat flight. Studies were published, much to the dismay of the military, about bats sonar abilities. Attempts were made to quell the reports, for fear that the idea, and thus the technology, would fall into evil hands.

Then the whole world went to war and such trivialities were forgotten.

But to witness the epic awsomeness of bats and their sonar, one has to travel no further than the nearest cave or woods. To witness a true spectacle, though, travel to Austin.

In Austin, at the Congress Avenue Bridge, every summer a million and a half bats flock and flourish. 1.5 million. The first occurrence was 1980 and it has happened every year, like natural clock work, ever since.

Thousands of tourists: bat lovers, nature lovers, those who just love massive groups come to see the spectacle. Every night the hoard consumes between ten thousand and twenty thousand pounds of insects. If only I could command such a flock to protect me and my sweet blood that mosquitoes so much love.