Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico are home in the summer to thousands of which creatures?
Correct answer: Free-tailed bats
cheetah5051634
Been there several times. Amazing to watch 500,000 bats fly out of the cave entrance at sunset. The caverns are awe-inspiring.
Player #279824
CharredRookie56464, an amazing sight to watch. they travel as far as Texas each night
and eat bugs in order to save crops
Ruby
bats aren't creepy at all. they look like sweet little sky puppies although I've never really seen one except in pictures and when they're flying up in the sky in the evening
Taranchalanche
CharredRookie56464, insects, tons and tons of insects! We have SO many here that we LOVE our bats madly! Heard they were in trouble, maybe that white nose mentioned earlier, I haven't heard any updates lately.
HazelTwigg
It's all fun and games until you get one zooming around wildly in your house in the dark of night. Quite paralyzing. I love bats, just not indoors.
tapdancintiger
Its a intresting place, went there on vacation with my family as a child. There is a resturant in the bottom of the cave, my parents ordered chicken wings and my uncle told us kids they were bat wings after we ate grrr lol
Alli
I went spelunking with a church group in MO, when I was 15 (name of cave unknown). While we were in the cave, they told us the hills of slippery, mushy stuff were mud. Once we came out, they told us it was bat guano and the whole group ran pell mell for the river to wash off! I don't remember if we had brought a change of clothes with us, but we sure could have used one!
Uninitialized
Ruby, just wait until you've had one crawling along your wall coming straight for you and hissing all the way!!!
Player #17640206
So...where do these bats live in the winter?
Uli von Scosher
CharredRookie56464, insects
brickmartian
CharredRookie56464, insects!!
moths, mosquitos, gnats, and whatever else is out at night!
They'll swoop the ground and tree branches for crawling bugs also, but mostly they catch and eat while constantly flying!
They can fly about 600-1000 miles in a single night, and mostly make it back home before sunrise!
brickmartian
Player #17640206, They fly south into Mexico and other south American countries!
One of those countries, I don't remember which, makes it a holiday when the bats come, and they have a large fiesta!
brickmartian
cheetah5051634, I went there in the 1970s and the bats literally blocked out the sky at sunset!
I took my family in 2012 and was sadly disappointed because so many had died from that "white nose" disease, and they came out very sporadically in few numbers at a time!
I'm happy they are recovering their numbers!
Angela
tapdancintiger, that would be awesome and how funny
Angela
cheetah5051634, that would be cool
nuzzles
agree with CharredRookie. Amazing
nuzzles
Been there, it was very fun to watch the bats
Tony
Chel, Those are vampire bats, not to be confused with so-called supernatural beings like werewolves, vampires, etc.
Chel
There is a bat in Central and south America that consumes blood. Generally from Herd animals, who sleep standing up, but only because they are easier to get to.
PerkyLin
I've heard that most of the bats in the US go to warmer climates for the winter. Actual hibernation is used also. In one Texas cave I've heard about, they go to Mexico. One year in January I participated in harvesting bat guano. Most is sold by a bat conservation group.
nan
HazelTwigg, All you have to do is open the door and they fly out fast!
JR. Gee
I figured that's their home lol
Player #2512936
Bats save Farmers millions.
GiGi07
bat guano is rich in nitrogen, so it is gr8 for soil
Nutshell
CharredRookie56464, most bats eat insects, like mosquitoes, and the other pests. (Although a few, eat fruit and other things.)
Player #3469015
CharredRookie56464, bugs
mammy1027
I've never heard of a Mastiff bat,-yikes!!!
CharredRookie56464
But what do they eat?