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Story by Jenna Carpenter, photos by Parastoo Nikravesh ocated on Old San Antonio Road, several miles off Interstate 10 is Old Tunnel State Park. It’s aptly named, as it used to be a railroad tunnel of the Fredericksburg and Northern Railway. Railroad operations stopped in 1942, and the property came under the purview of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 2012. It now functions as a state park and the tunnel itself is home to three million Mexican freetailed bats. For Nyta Brown, superintendent of Old Tunnel State Park, that is what makes the park special. “It is the smallest official state park in Texas, but has the largest population of any mammal in one place,” Brown is the only person who staffs the park, so she is responsible for all operations, interpretation and maintenance. “I couldn’t do my job without all the wonderful volunteers that
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assist me at the park,” she said. People can watch the bat emergence from May to October, and the best time of year to see them is August and September, Brown said. “They usually emerge earlier and there are more of them,” she said. There are two ways to view the bats. One is from an upper viewing area, which is open to the general public. The lower viewing area is open Thursday through Sunday for nightly tours. Here, guests get an up-close view of the emergence, and have the opportunity to hear the flap of their wings as they go out into the night. It’s an experience that never gets old, Brown said. The way to ensure you see the bats is to do your research, Brown said. “The best tip I can offer is to know that bats do not follow a schedule,” she said. “Emergence times can vary nightly.”
MARCH 2020
Contributed photo by Samuel Beaver
