Volunteers, ACS staff help save bats that freeze stunned.

Days after the winter storm hit San Antonio, casualties of the historic event lay splayed on roadways beneath bridges and highway overpasses. What looked like small piles of dirt on the pavement were Mexican free-tailed bats.

Michelle Camara, owner of the nonprofit Southern Wildlife Rehab, joined an officer of the city’s Animal Care Services Department at San Pedro Avenue and Loop 410 to rescue the frozen animals.

With blue-gloved hands, they picked up 1,200 of the winged mammals. Stunned by icy cold temperatures, some of the bats had internal injuries after falling 40 feet to the ground. The duo placed 600 dead bats in biodegradable bags. They secured the living inside vinyl carriers.

“As you’re picking them up, some are still falling from beneath the bridge,” Camara, 52, recalled.

For the past week, Southern Wildlife volunteers and ACS officers have rescued more than 2,000 bats at sites around the city. Their mercy mission took the volunteers to an area near Interstate 10 and Vance Jackson and to the Interstate 35 overpass near Camden Street, where an art installation depicting sunfish is suspended above the River Walk.

Sightings of dead bats have been reported in Austin, Houston, Victoria and elsewhere. Texas Parks & Wildlife received reports that the storm also affected songbirds, waterfowl, turtles and fish.

Jessica Alderson, an urban biologist with TPW’s urban wildlife program, said the majority of local bats migrate south in the winter. But because of San Antonio’s moderate winter temperatures, some stay in the area year-round and seek shelter in nooks and crevices beneath bridges, she added.

She said anyone who encounters a storm-affected animal, dead or alive, can report the sighting at iNaturalist.org, an online community of naturalists. Go to

bit.ly/3uAN8Uq and click on “Add Observations” to post a photo, a description or both.

Alderson said that if the animal is alive and struggling, members of the public can call her at 210-309-2416 to be referred to a rehabilitation group.

Camara cautioned people not to touch fallen bats. Instead, they are encouraged to call ACS (210207-4738), Southern Wildlife Rehab (210-272-9621) or Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation (830336-2725).

Acting ACS director Shannon Sims said the agency reached out to its nonprofit rescue partners when it started receiving reports of frozen, fallen bats.

He said ACS has gotten calls about fallen bats during past cold snaps, but never on a scale like last week.

Sims said ACS needed help from animal-rescue groups because its responsibilities with regard to bats are strictly prescribed by state law. ACS serves as a rabies control authority for Bexar County and operates on the assumption that a fallen bat may be infected and may have exposed someone.

“Therefore, we are going to euthanize it and send it for testing for rabies,” Sims said. “We have to ensure that the propagation of rabies doesn’t occur.” Rescue groups have a different mission — and special expertise in caring for the animals.

Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation rescues orphaned, injured and displaced wildlife, including nonnative animals caught up in the pet trade, held in roadside zoos or used in research.

Camara’s group, Southern Wildlife, rescues and rehabilitates native animals with help from veterinarians and volunteers.

“They are better equipped” to deal with bats, Sims said of Southern Wildlife. “That’s their forte. They were able to save a significant number.”

ACS spokeswoman Lisa Norwood

said: “We recognize that we cannot, nor should we, do this job alone. That is why we have partners.”

Camara credited ACS with helping to save the bat population affected by the storm.

“This is a big step for the city,” she said. “Hopefully, they’ll continue.”

Throughout the week, volunteers placed the injured bats in an outdoor pop-up tent at Southern Wildlife’s rehab facility on the North Side. There, Camara and her team are nursing the winged mammals back to health.

They’ve kept the sickest bats warm in an incubator and used syringes to feed them protein and a hydrolyzed solution.

Camara said San Antonio will feel the loss in the spring, a season when bats devour large numbers of insects at night. But she said there is hope: Baby bat season is in May.

“This year, we’re going to need them,” Camara said. “It’s going to take a while to repopulate them.”

Photos by Kin Man Hui / Staff photographer Michelle Camara, owner of Southern Wildlife Rehab, feeds one small bat as others wait their turn. Camara has cared for a variety of animals, but most recently she’s spending much of her time nourishing the winged mammals back to health.

A Mexican free-tailed bat peers through an opening at the temporary shelter that Camara has set up for him and hundreds of his fellow mammals as they recover from injuries sustained during the recent prolonged freezing weather.

Kin Man Hui / Staff photographer Michelle Camara, owner of Southern Wildlife Rehab, reaches up for one of several bats taking shelter inside a tent at the rehab facility. Camara has been providing shelter, food and medical care for hundreds of the tiny bats affected by the freezing temps.