Every summer evening, more than 1 million Mexican free-tailed bats can emerge from ancient lava tubes on a New Mexico ranch, streaming into the desert sky as they begin their nightly search for insects. The spectacle takes place at Armendaris Ranch, a 362,885-acre property in south-central New Mexico along the Rio Grande that was owned by the late Ted Turner. Turner Enterprises describes the Jornada lava field's tubes as the summer home of one of the largest bat populations in North America, while the current Ted Turner Reserves experience says over 1 million bats can rush from the caves at sunset. The Nature Conservancy, which has worked for decades to protect the site, provides a more specific breakdown, describing a maternal colony of well over 100,000 Mexican free-tailed bats and noting that millions of migratory bats use the caves as a warm-season stopover. This remarkable conservation story demonstrates how dedicated private stewardship can transform a historically exploited site into a thriving wildlife sanctuary, preserving one of North America's most spectacular natural phenomena.
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