<\/p>\n
Bat Conservation International biologist Melquisedec Gamba-Rios, left, and Zoo Miami\u2019s Frank Ridgley inspect a specially designed bonneted-bat house in 2019.<\/p>\n
Jenny Staletovich<\/p>\n
WLRN<\/p>\n
On a back trail at Zoo Miami, the silence broken only by an occasional braying zebra, wildlife veterinarian Frank Ridgley attaches a tiny camera to a painter\u2019s pole and hoists it through the steamy morning air to what looks like a bird house atop a towering pole.<\/p>\n
Inside, he spies what few people have ever observed in real life: a half-dozen Florida bonneted bats.<\/p>\n
Once driven to the brink of extinction, the bats are now rebounding thanks to Ridgley, the director of the zoo\u2019s conservation program, and a team at Bat Conservation International<\/a>. In just a few years, by erecting specially-designed bat houses at the zoo and around Miami-Dade County, Ridgley and the team have documented what now stands as the world\u2019s largest population of the very rare bat. At last count, they had identified more than 200 bats.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Zoo Miami created an oasis for bonneted bats. It\u2019s getting in the way of a water park<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTo go from zero in 2018 to that many may not sound like a lot to some people,\u201d Ridgley said. \u201cBut think how long it\u2019s taken the Florida panther to get from a dozen or two dozen cats to over 200. It took them until now from the early \u201870s, right?\u201d<\/p>\n The bats, like the panthers, are by no means out of the woods yet when it comes to their survival. But hitting this milestone has provided a new trove of research that will make mapping the secretive bats\u2019 future far easier.<\/p>\n \u201dThey are like this incredible miracle of Miami,\u201d said Elise Bennett, a senior attorney and the Florida and Caribbean director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The nonprofit serves as a de facto pro bono law firm for endangered species, with clients as diverse as polar bears in the Arctic and skinks in the Florida Keys.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just tickles me to no end that Miami has its own endangered species that the community and the scientists are caring for,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cIt\u2019s just huge.\u201d<\/p>\n Getting here has been years in the making, an epic tale that tends to follow endangered species.<\/p>\n By the time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to add bonneted bats to the endangered species list in 2010, biologists weren\u2019t even sure how many remained. Bats, like early South Florida settlers, lived primarily in pine rockland. But as those pinelands were replaced with cities and neighborhoods, the bats largely disappeared.<\/p>\n \u201c They were probably foraging along the edges of hammocks, pinelands, prairies, and those transitional glades that used to cut across,\u201d Ridgley said. \u201cThose were the big wide open spaces next to the forest that were making all the food for them.\u201d<\/p>\n That meant the large stand of pine rockland around Zoo Miami became a bat oasis. Until the zoo was built, the former World War II-era blimp base had remained largely undeveloped. By night, the zoo\u2019s sprawling parking lot became an insect smorgasbord for the large voracious bats. A single colony can consume more than 20 pounds of bugs in a night<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the time, outside of scientists and animal lovers, the secretive bats largely went unnoticed.<\/p>\n What happened next changed that. In 2014, the University of Miami, which owned part of the tract, agreed to sell nearly 90 acres to a developer planning a Walmart and apartments<\/a>, enraging conservationists who had long pushed Miami-Dade County to acquire the land for its Environmentally Endangered Lands program.<\/p>\n Critics mounted a fierce battle to block the plan, holding protests, starting petitions and heading to court, <\/a>where they ultimately lost.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to 2020, when the county revived plans <\/a>to build a water park and hotel on part of the zoo\u2019s parking lot where bats foraged, just a few months after federal wildlife managers announced plans to designate critical habitat<\/a> to help revive the population. County commissioners approved the plans. Conservationists sued. Even popular zoo spokesman Ron Magill spoke out against it<\/a>. In June, a judge finally terminated the deal.<\/p>\n All the while, the bat experts kept working on studying the bats. Ridgley says that has led to some surprising findings.<\/p>\n From golf-course sightings and other work, they learned that bats had moved from roosting in pineland to roosting in rooftops. They seemed to prefer the many barrel-tiled roofs in Coral Gables. But that made them vulnerable to hurricanes and construction. So beginning in 2018, Ridgley and Bats Conservation started building bat houses around the county and at the zoo. Within weeks of erecting the first 12, bonneted bats had moved in.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of a sudden, now we had bonneted bats in safe roosts in the middle of Miami, and we were watching their population grow. They\u2019re having babies every year, and they\u2019re occupying more and more of the houses,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Well, this is fantastic.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Bats that were tagged with GPS trackers revealed far-reaching night-time feeding flights.<\/p>\n \u201cBats here at the zoo actually fly all the way down to Everglades National Park and through the Redlands and come back. And then all the way up north,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen them go along the farmlands along Krome, almost up to the Cemex plant on Krome [Avenue].\u201d<\/p>\n Also bats from all over, even those that don\u2019t live at the zoo, will meet up in the same place to forage night after night.<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow, they all know where the food is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At the zoo, the bat houses were erected around one of the zoo\u2019s manmade lakes, which were created when it was built. The lake abuts one of the largest remaining tracts of pine rockland at Larry and Penny Thompson Park. If there is a hub for bat activity, this seems to be it. The bat team regularly visits the bat boxes to assess the bats, keep up with the babies and make sure the boxes aren\u2019t attracting uninvited visitors like wasps and scorpions.<\/p>\n For bat-watchers, these bat houses offer the best viewing, with the bats emerging in the evenings to swoop down for a drink from the lake or feed over the pineland before heading further afield.<\/p>\n Ridgley has also done a test-run on a bat cam installed in one of the bat houses so bonneted bats can be viewed live online, and he hopes, build a fan following like other animals\u2019 nests have. Solar panels now power the camera and Wi-Fi has been installed for broadcasting. The only thing missing is a correct camera lens.<\/p>\n \u201cAt night, you\u2019ll be able to see them come and go, and if they have a baby, you\u2019ll get to see them raise their baby,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The video feed will also provide researchers with a rare view of what happens inside the bat houses.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they hear us and they wake up, so they start moving around,\u201d he said. \u201cBut when no one\u2019s around, we have no idea what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n The bats are also helping renew attention to the plight of pine rockland. This week, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Miami Pine Rocklands Association, the South Florida Wildlands Association and the Tropical Audubon Society announced a $925,000 donation to Miami-Dade County to acquire more pineland.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the bats go extinct, we\u2019ve lost. There\u2019s nowhere to go,\u201d said Bennett, the Center\u2019s attorney. \u201cNow, we have this population. It\u2019s surviving, and it\u2019s just a reminder to us that we need to push towards that recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a reminder that urban conservation can work.<\/p>\n \u201dThey\u2019ve adapted to live here in this really rapidly changing environment,\u201d Ridgley said. \u201cMost species, when your entire habitat almost disappears and everything changes fast, they just can\u2019t adapt. Luckily, these guys have adapted enough.\u201d<\/p>\n The Florida bonneted bat gets its name from its large ears. Dustin Smith Zoo Miami <\/p>\n
Frank Ridgley, a Zoo Miami veterinarian and its wildlife conservation director, installs a bonneted-bat house. Zoo Miami <\/p>\n