Gallery: Conservation Stories
ANI082-00063
Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) swirl out of the Eckert James River Bat Cave at sunset to feed on insects. This maternity colony builds to more than 6 million bats in late July, making it one of the largest in the world. It is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy.
Keywords
- backlit
- bat
- brasiliensis
- Cave
- colony
- conservancy
- Eat
- Eating
- eckert
- eckert james river bat cave
- Feed
- Feeding
- fly
- Flying
- free tailed
- geographic
- Great
- great migration
- horizontal
- Hunt
- Hunting
- in the wild
- insect
- james
- large group
- low angle view
- magazine
- mammal
- maternity
- maternity colony
- Mexican
- mexican free tailed bat
- Migration
- national
- national geographic
- national geographic magazine
- nature
- no people
- nursery
- River
- Sunset
- Swarm
- swarming
- swirl
- swirling
- tadarida
- tadarida brasiliensis
- the nature conservancy
- up close
- Wing
This photo © Joel Sartore 2021. Image usage guidelines
