See Mexican Free-Tailed Bats, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

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Seventeen species of bats live in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, including a large number of Mexican free-tailed bats. Many techniques have been used to estimate the bat population in the cave. The most recent and most successful of these attempts involved the use of thermal imaging camera to track and count the bats. A count from 2005 estimated a peak of 793,000. The Mexican free-tailed bats are present from April or May to late October or early November. They emerge in a dense group, corkscrewing upwards and counterclockwise, usually starting around sunset and lasting about three hours. Every early evening from Memorial Day weekend to mid October (with possible exceptions for bad weather), a ranger gives a talk on the bats while visitors sitting in the amphitheater wait to watch the bats come out. Bat Flight Information575.785.3012

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