LSUS bat cave second of its kind in country
07/15/04

When technicians and volunteers complete the installation of a bat cave for the LSUS Red River Watershed Management Institute, it will be only the second one of its kind in the country and the first designed to control internal temperature.

Essentially, institute director Gary Hanson says, “We’re building ‘luxury condos’ for bats.” Two years in the planning, the bat cave being constructed today and tomorrow at the Red River Education & Research Park (C. Bickham Dickson Park) is made of huge tires used by Southwestern Electric Power Company earthmoving gear. Equipment to excavate and place the tires comes from H&E Equipment Services of Bossier City.

At the heart of the cave will be a tire Hanson calls “Big Bertha,” a tire with a 42-inch “footprint” (tread width), 100 inches in overall diameter and 45 inches in its interior opening. Other tires have openings from 33 inches. A 30-inch-diameter galvanized steel culvert with a custom-made “bat gate” will provide the opening of the cave, which will be the only visible part except for an observation and instrumentation port bored in the top of Big Bertha.

Hanson said the unusual structure will provide the only natural – albeit simulated – habitat for bats in North Louisiana, where “there are no significant natural caves.” When the cave draws significant numbers of bats – which, Hanson said, could take as much as a couple of years – it will be responsible for significant mosquito control, as well as preservation of the species.

The cave will also provide an “environmentally friendly” way for SWEPCO to recycle the giant tires, something that has created an ongoing problem for the power generator and other companies that use the huge earthmoving equipment in their operations. Brian Bond, SWEPCO vice president for external affairs, said his company will watch the LSUS bat cave with keen interest. “If this cave works as well as we believe it will,” Bond said, “SWEPCO plans to construct more of them with our used tires. It would be the perfect solution to a ‘really big’ recycling problem.”

Hanson has had a cadre of volunteers working on the bat cave project for two years. He credits three men in particular for spearheading the effort: David Williamson, a geologists and environmental scientist; Tom Hardaway, of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and Sgt. Lamar Wilcox, of Barksdale Air Force Base.

To help “prime the pump,” Hanson said six bat boxes were installed in the park about a year ago. “There are no bats in them, yet,” he said, “but it takes a long time for bats to inhabit those kinds of boxes. We are confident bats will find the cave in due time. But, we’ll have to be very patient and continue to monitor and control the internal temperature of the ‘luxury condos’ to let the bats know it’s ‘ready for immediate occupancy.’”

For more information, contact Gary Hanson, an LSUS associate professor of environmental science and director of the LSUS Red River Watershed Management Institute, at 318-458-6753 or ghanson@lsus.edu.