Wurzbach Bat Cave, Bexar County, Texas

December 2023, January 2024

Gate Types: 2 BASICS, 2 CUPOLAS

This former bat cave turned into a party cave before some cavers bought it to protect it. Unfortunately, they installed some gates that were very secure, but not very bat-friendly. The limited flight space and alteration to the cave’s microclimate prevented bats from ever re-establishing a colony there, as did the unchecked brushy overgrowth around the entrances. With new owners, we helped mitigate those problems, and now hope for the best. All photos © Jim Kennedy.

Welder Lydia gets ready to cut out one of the bad gates.
Another entrance, another bad gate. This time with concrete!
The concrete was bad not only because it reduced the flight space available to bats and altered the cave’s airflow and microclimate, but also because it dammed up so much sediment, further restricting the entrance.
Here’s another entrance, and a heap of concrete and plate steel.
Collin starts removing the steel plate so we can see what we are dealing with.
Just inside that entrance is a walking-height passage with the entire ceiling covered with old roost stains, indicative of a bat colony in the tens of thousands.
Here is our new gate on that first entrance.
And here is the new gate on the second entrance. Both have removable bar entry points for authorized access.
Even with the new gates, we still had to removed an insane amount of concrete from the old gates.
Lydia proudly shows off the just completed and beautifully crafted cupola gate at the Main Entrance.
We saved the Skylight Entrance for last. Ryan is sitting on what is left of the entrance, the majority being plugged with concrete.
We scraped off the surface soil to expose the bedrock, then brought out the jackhammer to try to break up the concrete.
There was another ridiculous amount of steel and rebar blocking this entrance. Even with the jackhammer, some concrete had to be left for a later volunteer work day.
Once we had enough concrete removed to re-establish airflow through the cave, we could finally get serious about building the gate.
The finished cupola gate over the Skylight Entrance, with the cupola gate on the Main Entrance in the background.