AUSTIN, Texas - It has taken 155 years, but the United States Postal Service is finally putting bats on postage stamps, and in a big way. The four first-class stamps, bearing bat photos taken by Bat Conservation International (BCI) founder and President Merlin Tuttle, will premiere Sept. 13. The United States, which issued its first stamps in 1847, joins at least 75 other countries that have celebrated bats on their postage stamps.
Each October, the Postal Service marks National Stamp Collecting Month by issuing commemorative stamps with special appeal to young people. The American Bats stamps are the centerpiece of this year's effort.
The first-day dedication ceremony will be in Austin, Texas, at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, at the Austin American-Statesman's Bat Observation Area adjacent to the Congress Avenue Bridge, home to the world's largest urban bat colony. Each evening from mid-March to early November approximately 1.5 million bats fly out from their roosts beneath the bridge to spend the night devouring up to 30,000 pounds of insects.
The new stamps will be available for purchase at the Austin event and at post offices across the country beginning the following day.
The evening's activities are free to the public and include stamp collectibles, Marcelo (BCI's mascot), BCI experts with live bats for up-close viewing, and, of course, the evening bat flight, which is expected to start at about 8 p.m. BCI, the National Wildlife Federation, and Home Depot are sponsoring a bat-house-building workshop for kids at 5:30 p.m.
The LEGO Company also is contributing to the festivities by inviting Austin-area families to help build a 23x35-foot replica of one of the new stamps, which depicts a leaf-nosed bat, made entirely of LEGO® bricks. Anyone interested can help click together bricks at the Crockett Center (6301 E Highway 290) for any of five days, from Thursday, Sept. 12, until Sunday, Sept. 15. For information, call the Crockett Center at (512) 451-3083.
BCI, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year as a nonprofit corporation dedicated to protecting bats and their habitats around the world, is seizing this opportunity to educate new audiences about the true nature of bats and their critical importance to the balance of nature. Dangerous myths, misinformation and needless fears have left these gentle and essential mammals at risk worldwide. BCI and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) joined forces with the Postal Service earlier this year to develop and distribute bat educational materials.
Location: The Austin American-Statesman's Bat Observation Area is at 305 S. Congress Avenue, at the corner of the Congress Avenue Bridge and Town Lake. Parking is available at near the observation area and at the Texas Department of Transportation offices, 150 Riverside Drive, just east on Congress Avenue.
For more information, call the Bat Hotline, 512-416-5700, category # 3636.
In conjunction with:
 |
BCI is a nonprofit organization, dedicated to the conservation of bats and bat habitats worldwide, and is recognized as the international leader in bat conservation, research and management initiatives. The organization employs a staff of 39 and is supported by 14,000 members in 70 countries.
