Recently my family and I were vacationing at Neals Lodges in Concan, Texas, when we heard about a truly amazing evening activity and it was visiting the Frio River Bat Cave!\r
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The Frio River Bat Cave is located South of Concan Texas at the crossroads of FM 127 and FM 2690. Frio River Bat Cave is home to the 2nd largest colony of bats in the world. With an estimated 10 to 12 million Brazilian Free Tail Bats, the natural wonder is a humbling experience when viewed in person. The cave is situated on private property and visitors pay an entrance fee to witness first hand the nightly emergence of the bat colony as they exit the cave to feed on tons of insects. Their emergence looks like a living river flowing miles long from the belly of the earth into the evening sky. The bat colony is so large that it can be seen by satellites in outer space. Amazingly, it takes over 3 full hours for all the bats to exit the cave. Each night the bats travel up to 50 miles to eat several tons worth of insects. Local farmers love the bats because they save them millions of dollars each year in pesticides. For centuries man has witnesses this natural wonder and the earliest documented reference about the Frio River Bat Cave is from the late 1700s. \r
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With the millions of bats living in the cave you can expect conditions to be really gross. And trust me it is! Cave curators say that the Bat Poo called Guano is an average depth of 10 feet through the cave that stretches for more than a 1/2 a mile. The stench from the decomposing bat guano is lethal for humans who try to enter the cave without a proper filtered mask. For centuries people have harvested the Bat Guano to make one of the basic components of gunpowder and to use it as a fertilizer.\r
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Another interesting fact about the Bat Cave is that Universities from across the United States travel to the Bat Cave to study the bats for various types of scientific research. One of many intriguing research programs ongoing is studying how the bats fly as a group without crashing into each other. Scientist hope to use this data to program a myriad of small military drones to fly in a hive mass in urban and metropolitan areas. \r
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If you ever get a chance to visit the Frio River Bat Cave you will leave with a feeling of awe at the wonders of Creation.