Austin Bat

About the Bat

Austin is the capital of Texas and known as the 'Live Music Capital of the World', famous for its iconic bat colony under the Congress Avenue Bridge. The city combines vibrant music culture with outdoor activities, featuring the famous South by Southwest festival, beautiful Lady Bird Lake, the historic Texas State Capitol, and the world's largest urban bat colony.

Austin's association with bats began in 1980, when the Congress Avenue Bridge was rebuilt with narrow expansion crevices that proved well suited to roosting Mexican free-tailed bats. The colony that moved in grew to a summer population estimated near 1.5 million, and early reactions included public alarm and calls to remove the animals. Bat Conservation International, founded by Merlin Tuttle in 1982 and relocated to Austin in 1986, campaigned to reframe the bats as insect-eating neighbors. The effort worked: the nightly emergence, roughly March through late autumn before the bats return to Mexico, now draws crowds to the bridge, and the animal appears in local names such as the Austin Ice Bats hockey team and the annual Bat Fest.