Our main reason for coming to the Carlsbad, NM, area was to tour Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We were fortunate to arrive in time to see the evening bat migration.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park has a colony of around 400,000 Mexican Freetail bats. It is indicated by research that Mexican freetail bats have roosted in Carlsbad Caverns for over 5,000 years.
Rumor has it that Carlsbad Caverns were discovered by a cowboy named Jim White when he followed what he thought was a plume of smoke, which turned out to be millions of bats, coming out of the cave's entrance.
http://www.eparks.org/wildlife_protection/wildlife_facts/bats/
You cannot take any pictures at the evening bat flight because the bat's sonar becomes disoriented by the clicking sound from the cameras and this scares them and they don't exit the cave. The park ranger puts a listening device by the entrance to the cave and when you hear the clicks everyone must be quiet and then you see this huge black cloud of bats leave the cave and fly off into the night. This is a very amazing sight that everyone that is in this area should see.
The pictures below were taken right before sunset and show the entrance to the cave where the bats fly out and the amphitheater seating.
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