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

The El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens invites our community to give a helping hand (or in this case plant) to one of our endangered native bats! 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. And we need YOU!

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 are recruiting up to 100 volunteers to “adopt” and care for a baby agave plant for one year until they are ready for planting back in the wild.

Selected participants must be able to pick up their agave from the El Paso Zoo between November 27 and December 16, 2023 and must commit to caring for the plant for one year. Return of the agaves to the Zoo will be in October or November 2024. The plants will be given out in 1-gallon pots and should be kept indoors where they can receive bright morning sun. The plants should be watered once every two weeks in the summer and once a month in other seasons, so that the water runs out the bottom of the pot.

If you are interested in participating in this program, please fill out the interest form below by Sunday, November 26. Selected participants will be contacted starting November 27 to arrange pick up at the Zoo between November 27 to December 16, and will be provided with detailed care instructions.

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.