Frantic Rescue Saves 6,000 Florida Bats

Cavers, Boy Scouts, and other volunteers descended - very carefully - on a remote cave in northwest Florida to rescue 6,000 bats trapped by mud and rising water during rainstorms in late June.

The nursery colony of southeastern bats (Myotis austroriparius) was completely sealed inside the cave on the Withlacoochee State Forest, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Florida's Forestry Division was already trying to free the bats when the volunteers started showing up in the heavy rain.

For most of the day, workers built dams of hay bales and rocks in hopes of diverting the water. It didn't work. As evening neared and the rains stopped, Robert Brooks of the Tampa Bay Area Grotto cavers' club went down the hill and opened enough space to squeeze into the cave's narrow entrance.

He told the newspaper he gently lifted soggy bats from the water and handed them to fellow Grotto members outside the entrance. The bats hesitated but a moment before flying off. The cavers then hammered and chiseled until the opening was large enough for the rest of the bats to escape.

As night fell, thousands of mother bats and their hungry children raced out of the cave and soared away to freedom.

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