Bat City USA 2013
Distributed by The Video Project, PO Box 411376, San Francisco, CA 94141-1376; 800-475-2638
Produced by Laura Brooks, Rod Cole, and Kathy Swift Albert
Directed by Laura Brooks
DVD , color, 36 min.
Jr. High - General Adult
Animal Behavior, Animal Rights, Biology, Ecology, Natural History, Urban Areas, Wildlife Conservation, Habitat
Date Entered: 02/14/2014
Reviewed by Christopher Hollister, University at Buffalo LibrariesBat City USA is a delightful documentary film about the once unthinkable, but now unabashed love that the city of Austin, Texas has for its downtown colony of Mexican free-tailed bats. The story begins in 1980, when reconstruction was completed on Austin’s Congress Avenue Bridge. Unknowingly, the bridge engineers created an ideal bat-roosting habitat by way of new crevices fashioned beneath the bridge. Soon thereafter, bats moved in by the thousands.
At first, the residents of Austin reacted with fear; they petitioned authorities to have the bat colony eradicated, and the local media exacerbated matters with sensational headlines. Enter Merlin Tuttle, the founder of Bat Conservation International. Mr. Tuttle’s tireless efforts to court the local media and to educate the city of Austin about the true nature of bats and their environmental benefits helped residents to overcome their prejudice.
Today, Austin hosts the largest urban colony of bats in North America; their summertime numbers are estimated to peak at 1.5 million. These bats consume an estimated 15,000 pounds of insects nightly, and they attract an estimated 100,000 enthusiastic bat-watchers annually. Bat City USA is a testament to great environmental benefits that can result from having an informed citizenry. The reviewer highly recommends this title for academic, public, and school library collections.