You can watch thousands of bats take flight from a Phoenix tunnel

Ron Dungan | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Mexican free-tailed bats live in Phoenix tunnel Angie McIntire, a bat biologist for Arizona Game and Fish Department, talks about the Mexican free-tailed bat on Aug. 15, 2017, near the entrance to a Phoenix flood-control tunnel from where the bats exits just after sunset.

The hour was late, the sun going down, the kitchen at Chelsea’s in high gear and the smell of food was in the air.

The moon was rising and the bats would be out soon, thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats that take flight around dusk, and a few people had gathered to watch.

Estimates vary on how many bats live in the flood-control tunnel in Phoenix, about 200 yards from 40th Street and Camelback Road.

A sign on metal bars above the tunnel says there are 5,000. Bat biologist Angie McIntire, of the Arizona Game and Fish Department, says the number is probably closer to 10,000 or 20,000.

A few more bat watchers showed up to see the flight as the bats began to fly out of the tunnel.

Amy Schultz, who had dropped by with a group that included her five grandchildren, pressed her face against the bars above the concrete tunnel and watched the bats flitting out into the night.

'Who knew?'

“Who knew it was here? I’ve lived here 50 years,” Schultz said.

Cicadas buzzed in the trees and the moon came in and out of view behind scattered clouds. Grown-ups tried to shush the kids because a sign said the bats don’t like noise, but the bats kept flying.

Jeff Altieri said he has lived in the Valley 30 years and never knew the bats were here either. His wife, Courtney Gastonguay, and a friend had come along as well. They were looking for something to do and the bats turned up in an Internet search.

Game and Fish tries to get the word out about the bats, their role in the ecosystem, the fact that they are harmless if left alone, and yet from time to time they find painful reminders that not everyone has gotten the message.

About eight years ago, for example, nearly 90 free-tail bats were shot near the Peralta Trailhead in the Superstition Mountains.

'Neat creatures' are misunderstood

Tom Cadden, a spokesman for Game and Fish, recalled another incident, years ago, when some bats that roost under a bridge in Tucson were killed.

“They’re misunderstood," he said. "I think there are a lot of myths about them. Maybe that’s because of the way they’re portrayed on movies and TV shows. But bats are beneficial. They control the insect population and they’re pretty neat creatures.

“I think some of the myths, I don’t know, they just get perpetuated over time.”

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People toss out the phrase "blind as a bat," though bats can actually see. People tell stories about them attacking the hair or eyes, and yet a dozen people stand over a tunnel in Phoenix and nobody is attacked. Clearly, not everyone believes the myths.

“When I go out there I always run into people who are coming out to see the bats,” McIntire said.

Most nights it’s fairly quiet — a dozen people is the usual number. Game and Fish once organized public bat viewing events and had 400 people show up at one.

“We stopped doing it because the bats, you know, they’re wildlife,” said Randy Babb, Watchable Wildlife Program Manager for Game and Fish.

They don’t always show up, or they start leaving the tunnel in pitch black, when they are hard to see and everyone has left, he said.

Why Phoenix?

The Mexican free-tail frequently gathers in large numbers, McIntire said. Their roosts sometimes number in the millions, and some colonies are “so large you can see them on radar.”

They fly fast, eating moths or beetles primarily. Not much is known about their habits but they may fly a long way to find food, as much as 20 miles in one evening. Sometimes, they fly thousands of feet above the ground to pursue insect swarms, McIntire said.

The bats come here to raise their young and will fly back to Mexico to spend the winter.

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Arizona has 28 species of bats and there is also a smaller species commonly known as the canyon bat that lives in the Phoenix tunnel.

The canyon bat weighs about as much as a “Hershey’s Kiss, making it the smallest North American bat,” according to a paper written by McIntire. The species “emerges earlier than most North American bats and is usually the first bat seen in the evening,” she writes. Their flight resembles that of a butterfly.

Bats reproduce slowly, having one or two young per year. The canyon bat lives up to seven or eight years, while the Mexican free-tail lives up to 20 years. Some species live up to 40.

Bats are a challenge for researchers

Game and Fish recently received a grant to study white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has been found in 33 states and can kill bats. So far, Arizona is not one of those states, but it has been found in Texas, which is cause for concern and gives researchers a reason for more study.

The cicadas are still buzzing in the trees and the moon rises. Darkness thickens and begins to fill in gaps between the wings and the bats get harder to see as the last of the bat watchers leave.

Some of the bats have not gone very far; they are hovering over street lights.

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A week later, about 10 people have gathered to watch the bats emerge. McIntire is there, and she talks about how bats are sometimes eaten by hawks or owls, how bobcats, skunks or ringtail-cats eat baby bats that fall to cave floors. The smell of guano comes out of the tunnel as the bats trickle out.

They are just getting started.

Bats present a number of challenges for researchers, who are trying to find the answers to a variety of questions.

“Where do these guys go? What are their nightly habits?” McIntire said.

Getting there

The tunnel is north of 40th Street and Camelback Road.

The path to the tunnel is located on the north side of the Arizona Canal. Follow the canal west for about 200 yards, past the office buildings and parking garage. An asphalt path to the right will take you to the top of the tunnel.

The bats exit the tunnel just after sunset from May through October.

6 myths about bats

They get tangled in your hair: Bats have no interest in human hair. They have better things to do.

They suck your blood: Most bats eat insects. The one species that does drink blood is the vampire bat, which lives in Mexico, Central America and South America, and usually feeds on animal blood. Of the 1,300 kinds of bats in the world, only three are vampire bats.

Bats attack people: Bats are afraid of people, and so they won’t attack. Probably.

Bats are pests: They are not. Since most bats eat bugs, they are a natural, efficient means of pest control. One bat can eat thousands of mosquito-sized bugs in one night.

All bats have rabies: Less than 1 percent of bats have rabies. Bats are mammals, and like raccoons, foxes, skunks and other mammals, they can carry rabies. But your chances of getting rabies from a bat are very small. Bees are more dangerous than bats, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Bats are blind: Bats can see, actually; they just don’t see well. Many kinds of bats have small eyes and use echolocation, a kind of radar, to navigate.

Sources: batconservation.org, nwf.org

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