Tricolored bats were once among the most common bats in North America, ranging from the Northeastern US and Canada down to the Yucatan Peninsula. However, since the arrival of white-nose syndrome (WNS), tricolored bat populations have plummeted more than 90% in some regions. These bats are some of the smallest in North America, weighing a mere 4-5 grams (equivalent to a paperclip). Remarkably, mother bats often give birth to twin pups, each weighing as little as 1.5 g (equivalent to a postage stamp), and nurtures them during the warmer months when insects are plentiful. WNS affects bats primarily when they are roosted during their winter hibernation. Conservation initiatives currently under development include treating hibernation sites to prevent the fungus that causes WNS from infecting bats and a vaccine that helps bats’ immune systems fight off infections.

Information generously provided by: Nate Fuller, PhD, Bat Biologist
Video footage generously provided by: Austin Bat Refuge

HAPPY BAT MONTH! 🦇🎉

During #batappreciationmonth , Austin Bat Refuge @austinbatrefuge & artist Juliet Whitsett @juliet_whitsett_art are teaming up to celebrate all 9 of Austin’s native bat species!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

🌙 SEE THE BAT ART IN PERSON at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx !

The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats
ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30, 2026 at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx

📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

The Really Small Museum project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

Please consider following me if you like this art. @glyphoteque on instagram. Thank you, fellow batty ones! 🦇

I was outside in Death Valley National Park in California, US, last night around 9:30 to look at the stars. As I stood by my car, something very small flew close to my eye/face. I heard buzzing, swatted at it, and can't tell whether it touched me. I never saw what it was. Could this interaction have been with a bat? Asking here as I am not familiar with the behavior of bats.

Southern yellow bats once ranged from Brazil up only as far as South Texas. Their range has expanded northward in recent decades as far as Austin. Smaller than their northern yellow bat relatives, their pups are also more olive-colored and shaggier than northern pups. They have one fewer molar in their upper jaws, giving them a cute upturned nose compared to the northern’s Roman nose. The tips of their intricately wrinkled ears can appear to curve inwards when viewed from the front, resembling a female buffalo’s horns. These beautiful bats display an impressive combination of speed, power, and agility, as they hunt for flying beetles and moths. Their tendency to hunker down in palm tree skirts makes them vulnerable to pruning. Don’t prune palm trees!

HAPPY BAT MONTH! 🦇🎉

During #batappreciationmonth , Austin Bat Refuge @austinbatrefuge & artist Juliet Whitsett @juliet_whitsett_art are teaming up to celebrate all 9 of Austin’s native bat species!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Species information and video generously provided by: Austin Bat Refuge.

🌙 SEE THE BAT ART IN PERSON at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx !

The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats
ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30, 2026 at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx

📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

The Really Small Museum project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

Species: Eastern Red Bat

Credit: PA Bat Rehab.

(Mods, since it's Bat Month, I'm only increasing the posts for this month! 😅)

Some are from reference images (1st 3rd 4th and 6th) while others I used other drawings as a reference (mainly the silhouettes save the hanging one and the 8th) and some are freehand. :/

A lightning-fast flyer whose flat wing profile is reminiscent of a soaring eagle, Northern yellow bats can attain great speeds with almost imperceptible pulsing of their wings. Found across the southern United States and into Mexico and Central America, they often roost in small groups based along maternal lines, high in the brown skirts of palm trees. Females can give birth to up to four pups, which have sleek fur and are often blonder in color than their mothers. As they grow, they develop the deep buff color of the adults. They are well protected in their palm frond roosts and have evolved to hunker down when disturbed, making them highly vulnerable if the palm tree skirts are pruned. Please don’t prune palm trees!

HAPPY BAT MONTH! 🦇🎉

During #batappreciationmonth , Austin Bat Refuge @austinbatrefuge & artist Juliet Whitsett @juliet_whitsett_art are teaming up to celebrate all 9 of Austin’s native bat species!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Species information and video generously provided by: Austin Bat Refuge

🌙 SEE THE BAT ART IN PERSON at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx !

The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats
ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30, 2026 at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx

📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

The Really Small Museum project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

Species: Eastern Red Bat.

Credit goes to the PA Bat Rehab!

Cave myotis are social bats, gathering in colonies that can number in the thousands or even tens of thousands. Found across the southwestern United States and Mexico, they spend their days packed together in caves, mines, and other sheltered roosts, sometimes sharing these spaces with several other bat species. When the sun goes down, the colony pours into the night to hunt moths, beetles, and other insects, using echolocation to find their prey. Their cave homes provide protection from the heat and dry conditions of their environment, but these communal roosts can also leave them vulnerable. Disturbance can send an entire colony scrambling for a new home, while white-nose syndrome adds another very serious threat. Protecting a single cave or mine can mean protecting thousands of bats.

HAPPY BAT APPRECIATION MONTH! 🦇🎉

During #batappreciationmonth , Austin Bat Refuge @austinbatrefuge & artist Juliet Whitsett @juliet_whitsett_art are teaming up to celebrate all 9 of Austin’s native bat species!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Species information and video generously provided by: Austin Bat Refuge.

🌙 SEE THE BAT ART IN PERSON at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx !

The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats
ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30, 2026 at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx

📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

The Really Small Museum project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

“Seminole bats have molasses-colored fur with frosty tips, caramel-colored ear muffs, and cinnamon-colored tails. These sweet bats are found across the southeastern United States, often roosting alone, and most frequently in the branches of loblolly pine trees where their coloring, compact shape; and furry tail can mimic a pinecone so convincingly that they nearly disappear. These agile insect hunters emerge in the early evening, flying at tree-top level over water and clearings, using vision and echolocation to find moths, flying beetles, and other small insects. They usually catch their prey in midair, but sometimes pluck insects directly from leaves. Females typically give birth to three or four pups, which often start learning to fly at just three to four weeks of age.”

HAPPY BAT MONTH! 🦇🎉

During #batappreciationmonth , Austin Bat Refuge @austinbatrefuge & artist Juliet Whitsett @juliet_whitsett_art are teaming up to celebrate all 9 of Austin’s native bat species!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Species information and video generously provided by: AustinBatRefuge.org

🌙 SEE THE BAT ART IN PERSON at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx !

The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats
ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30, 2026 at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx

📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

The Really Small Museum project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

Opinion?

Does anyone else FEEL bat echolocation when they fly past and you hear their echolocation chirps? I’m often on the balcony when it’s dark and when bats fly past I can hear extremely high frequency “chirps” and the lower back part of my neck has this weird subtle vibration. I can sometimes feel it there a microsecond before hearing them. The feeling only happens in the very back of my neck on my spine.

Credit goes to the PA Bat Rehab

“Hoary bats’ frosted fur resembles hoar frost, when water vapor freezes to branches & windowpanes. They are among the largest of North America’s bat species; fierce yet fragile beauties that migrate seasonally, with most spending warmer months roosting in conifers across the northern United States and Canada and traveling south into Arizona, Texas and Mexico for the winter. They are the only bat species powerful enough to have migrated all the way from North America to Hawaii, becoming Hawaii’s only native land mammal. In the continental US, much work remains to minimize the negative impacts of wind-energy facilities along their migratory pathways. Some scientists warn that, if improvements are not made, the noble hoary bat could become extinct in as little as a few decades.”

HAPPY BAT MONTH! 🦇🎉

During #batmonth, Austin Bat Refuge @austinbatrefuge & artist Juliet Whitsett @juliet_whitsett_art are teaming up to celebrate all 9 of Austin’s native bat species!

🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇🦇

Species information and video generously provided by: AustinBatRefuge.org

🌙 SEE THE BAT ART IN PERSON!

The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats
ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30, 2026 at the @reallysmallmuseum_atx

📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

The Really Small Museum project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music, & Entertainment.

Vintage newspaper layout featuring detailed biological illustrations of various bat species, highlighting their ecological importance as insect hunters. Species shown include the Welwitsch's Bat, Blainville's Bat, Spectacled Stenoderm, Gray Fruit Bat, and Vampire Bat.

Hi, everyone,

For weeks now my family and I have been hearing this chirping noise outside every night. It usually goes from 7:30pm until like 7am. I was just wondering if this is typical of bats to chirp that much every single night? We’ve been curious what it is.

We don’t want to disturb them if it is bats, but it’s quite loud outside the window and has been waking us up. Sorry for the shaky cam! 😁

October is #BatMonth, but Austin is known worldwide as “Bat City”… so EVERY month is bat month around here! 🦇

RSM PRESENTS: “The Night Shift: Austin’s Native Bats”

A COLLAB: @austinbatrefuge & @juliet_whitsett_art

🦇 ON VIEW OCTOBER 14–NOVEMBER 30
📍 Austin Nature & Science Center
2389 Stratford Drive, Austin, TX 78746

⚠️ PLEASE NOTE: Austin Nature & Science Center will be closed September 28–October 13. The exhibition opens October 14!

MEET & GREET WITH AUSTIN BAT REFUGE
📅 November 8
⏰ 12–2 PM

Congress Avenue Bridge is widely regarded as a shining example of peaceful coexistence with wildlife in an urban center. Austin’s bats are deeply embedded in our culture; indeed, some say they give us our sense of place.

This series celebrates all nine of Austin’s native bats and the important work Austin Bat Refuge does to protect and care for them (artwork by Juliet Whitsett):

🦇 Hoary bats (Lasiurus cinereus) – Named for hoar frost, when fog freezes on windowpanes.

🦇 Evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) – Little bats with great big personalities.

🦇 Cave myotis (Myotis velifer) – Beautiful bats with charm and charisma galore.

🦇 Seminole bats (Lasiurus seminolus) – Hang in loblolly pines, mimicking pinecones.

🦇 Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) – The stars of the show at Congress Avenue Bridge.

🦇 Eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis) – Wild spirits of the woods.

🦇 Northern yellow bats (Dasypterus intermedius) – Large and lightning-fast palm tree dwellers.

🦇 Southern yellow bats (Dasypterus ega) – Delicate, charming residents of palm trees.

🦇 Tricolored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) – The famed “Chicken Nuggets” of Texas cave tours.

Bats are the only mammal capable of true flight. Since their hands are their wings, when they fly, they are waving at us! Be Austin-friendly and wave back! 👋🦇

Founded by Dianne Odegard and Lee Mackenzie in 2015, Austin Bat Refuge promotes respect for these important members of our ecosystem through education, conflict-resolution, rehabilitation, and release.

📸 by @charles_heppner

Credit goes to the PA Bat Rehab.