It was a rescue worthy of Batman.

A wave of frigid air triggered "hypothermic shock" in a colony of bats clinging to their roost beneath a bridge in Houston, a sprawling city in Texas.

Nearly frozen, the bats began losing their grip and falling to the pavement from nine meters (30 feet) up, the Houston Humane Society reported on its Facebook page.

The Mexican free-tailed bats "are tiny, and have minimal body fat, so they are not able to live long when laying exposed on the ground in freezing temperatures," the Humane Society explained.

As the cold wave intensified last Thursday, the group launched a bat rescue, gathering up 929 bats from the ground under the Waugh Bridge, and providing them heat and nutrition.

Volunteers joined in the effort and more than 1,500 bats were taken in by the weekend, kept warm at the shelter or in the attic of society wildlife director Mary Warwick.

Most only needed warmth and water, but the most affected were placed in incubators and fed intravenously.

"Amazingly, most of (the) bats have survived," the society said.

With temperatures climbing to 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday, the society released "close to 700" of the bats back to the bridge, leaving them free to swoop through the skies for insects.

Bat watching is a popular pastime in Texas, and a number of bridges have huge colonies.

The Waugh Bridge in Houston, Congress Bridge in Austin and Camden Street Bridge in San Antonio all draw visitors at dusk, when the bats leave en masse for nightly feeding forays.

Related Links
Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Metabolic hack makes ocean algae more resilient to 21st century climate change
Daejeon, South Korea (SPX) Dec 22, 2022
A study published in Science Advances by an international team of scientists provides clear evidence that marine phytoplankton are much more resilient to future climate change than previously thought. Combining data from the long-term Hawai'i Ocean Time-series program with new climate model simulations conducted on one of South Korea's fastest supercomputers, the scientists revealed that a mechanism, known as nutrient uptake plasticity, allows marine algae to adapt and cope with nutrient-poor ocea ... read more