Alternative Colour for Austin Bats print

People viewing bats flying from underneath the congress ave bridge in austin with the background being a street map showing the surrounding neighbourhood. Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge is home to the world's largest urban bat colony which is composed of Mexican free-tailed bats. The bats reside beneath the road deck in gaps between the concrete component structures. They are migratory, spending their summers in Austin and the winters in Mexico. According to Bat Conservation International, between 750,000 and 1.5 million bats reside underneath the bridge each summer. Since Austin's human population is about 750,000, there are more bats than people in Austin during summer. The nightly emergence of the bats from underneath the bridge at dusk, and their flight across Lady Bird Lake primarily to the east, to feed themselves, attracts as many as 100,000 tourists annually. Tourists can see the bats from the bridge, from the sides of the river and from boats.