By Dr. Kristen Lear, Agave Restoration Program Director at Bat Conservation International

Thanks to the help of the Zoo’s Marketing Department all agaves have been adopted! Stay connected to the Zoo and informed about this important conservation effort by subscribing to our blog. To learn more we also have a new Agave blog.

The Zoo has partnered with Bat Conservation International for the second year of our “Adopt an Agave” program to help provide much-needed nectar resources for the endangered Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) that calls Big Bend National Park home.

The Mexican long-nosed bat is one of only three pollinating bat species found in the United States and the only endangered bat in Texas. Emory Cave in Big Bend National Park supports the largest and most important roost for the species in the U.S. with up to 3,000 individuals using the cave between April and September. This roost is a special roost, serving as a safe haven for mother bats to raise their pups (babies) during the summer months. During their summer stay in Texas before migrating back south for the winter, the bats feed on the sweet nectar of agave flowers and provide critical pollination services to these iconic plants.

Unfortunately, these bats are under threat from loss and alteration of foraging habitat and the effects of climate change, prompting their inclusion in the Endangered Species Coalition’s 2021 report Last Chance: 10 U.S. Species Already Imperiled by Climate Change.

Through Bat Conservation International’s Agave Restoration Initiative, partners like the El Paso Zoo are protecting and restoring foraging habitat for Mexican long-nosed bats throughout the bats’ migratory range. The Trans-Pecos region of Texas outside of Big Bend National Park is a suspected migratory corridor for the species, and climate change predictions indicate that this region may become even more important in the future, making protection of foraging habitat in this area critical to the long-term survival of the species.

The El Paso Zoo is working with BCI to create a climate-resilient nectar corridor that will support the bats during their time in Texas and along their migratory route now and into the future. Over the past several years, BCI and local partners such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, The Nature Conservancy, Sul Ross State University, and private landowners have collected thousands of native Agave havardiana seeds from prime agave habitat across the Trans-Pecos. BCI began renovating greenhouse space in Alpine, Texas with Sul Ross State University, and together have propagated 1,000 plants from the collected seeds. In 2024, several hundred of these plants will be ready for planting in the wild.

BCI and the Zoo have recruited over 100 volunteers to “adopt” and care for a baby agave plant for one year until they are ready for planting back in the wild.

For any questions about this project, contact Bat Conservation International’s Agave Restoration Program Director Dr. Kristen Lear at klear@batcon.org and the El Paso Zoo’s Education Curator Rick LoBello at LobelloRL@elpasotexas.gov.

To learn more about the inter-connectedness of bats, agaves, and people and to learn more about the Agave Restoration Initiative, visit batcon.org/batsandagave.