Volunteers transplant agave plants adopted at the Zoo in the Davis Mountains at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center near Fort Davis, Texas

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Climate change is upon us and everything we do and talk about regarding this threat to the future of our planet and human civilization is important. Thanks to Bat Conservation International teaming up with the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens, hundreds of people are taking action to help endangered species like the Mexican long-nosed bat.

Over the past few years nearly 300 people adopted agave plants at the Zoo as part of a hands on conservation effort to help expand critical habitat needed for Mexican long-nosed bats. Agave plants grown from seeds at Sul Ross State University were adopted out at the Zoo last fall and then returned in November. On December 3, Bat Conservation International picked up the plants and transported them on a three hour journey eastward to the Davis Mountains. They were then delivered to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute near Fort Davis to be be planted in the foothills of the Davis Mountains at an elevation of 5,100 ft. 

Mexican long-nosed 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.

As of earlier this year 140,000 agaves were growing in 18 Bat Conservation International greenhouses and so far over 107,500 agaves have been planted in Arizona, New Mexico, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Sonora, and Zacatecas

Rick LoBello, Education and Conservation Curator

Photos courtesy Lisa Gordon, Executive Director, Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, Fort Davis.