HUNTSVILLE, Texas — As the seasons change, an old, abandoned warehouse in downtown Huntsville owned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is, once again, losing its tenants.
Just a few months ago, the warehouse was home to three-quarters of a million bats. Spectators showed up Monday night to see what's left.
Cell phone video shows the countless Mexican freetails, rising from their roost as the sun begins to set; pouring out of the old textile warehouse like smoke from a chimney.
"It's not safe,” says TDCJ spokesman Robert Hurst.
The prison system owns the dilapidated building which sits right across the street from the Walls Unit, home to the most active execution chamber in the country.
“It’s a building that needs to be done away with, but right now we can’t because of the bats that are in there.”
On the backside of the building is a church daycare.
“The employees from TDCJ who go in there and have to clean up the bat guano, some of them get sick,” Hurst said.
State agencies have tried to relocate the bats in the past and have built enormous bat houses one block away.
But they didn't work.
“They don’t want to leave,” Hurst said. “They kind of like where they are.”
Dr. Nate fuller with the Texas Department of Wildlife says the prison property is home to one of the largest urban bat colonies in the state.
“If you go in there and blow it all up at once, the bats will probably scatter throughout the community, most likely,” Fuller said.
He agrees the bats need to find a more suitable place to live, and with careful planning and execution, they could be re-homed successfully.
“The real challenge is that it is difficult to capture that many bats,” Fuller said. “It’s just going to take time and careful consideration.”
