As our Earth grows warmer, radar shows bats migrating to Texas beginning earlier

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Friday March 02, 2018 · 1:09 PM PST

2018/03/02 · 13:09

Screen_Shot_2018-03-02_at_12.52.08_PM.png — The Bracken bat cave migration in 2009

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Inside Climate News reported on Valentine’s Day about the disturbing albeit predictable changes in migratory animals patterns, as our earth grows warmer and warmer. Specifically, the millions of bats migrating annually from Texas’s Bracken bat cave, and captured on radar, has exhibited this behavior shift.

"We're able to see there is this advancing pattern. Spring is happening earlier, winter is ending sooner," Stepanian said. "In the spring, the bugs advance up from Mexico, hitting Texas, hitting Kansas and, suddenly, the bats have something to eat."

That may also explain why the number of Brazilian free-tailed bats now staying through the winter in Texas' Bracken Cave has swelled in recent years. Surveys in the 1950s found no bats spending the entire winter there, but in 2017, as much as 3.5 percent of the entire population—100,000 bats—remained during the winter months, Stepanian said.

Scientists believe that the reason this is happening is that bats need not head all the way south of Texas to get the warmer weather they search for. Now they’re just hanging out in Texas. No one is exactly sure how this might affect things in the ecosystem of Texas or further afield, but the theories aren’t heartwarming.

Bats and the insects they eat are linked in a complex seasonal and evolutionary cycle that the state's agriculture areas rely on. If climate change disrupts the cycle, this natural pest control might fail, causing costly crop damage and an increased need for pesticides.

In a worst-case scenario, the timing could be so disrupted that it might threaten the bats' ability to reproduce. Females produce just one pup each, and during the feeding phase, the bats are heavily reliant on one main species of insect—the corn-earworm moth.

Even the littlest ripple of a bat’s wings makes waves far down the pond.

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