Jul 24, 2025 - News

Bat found at UT returning home to West Texas

Nicole Cobler

Close-up of a small brown bat with large ears resting on a hand wearing a black glove, against a blurred green-gray background. — Hubble, a big free-tailed bat, was found in UT's astronomy building after he traveled from West Texas to Austin. Photo: Courtesy of Amanda Stronza/Austin Bat Refuge

Hubble, a big free-tailed bat that made a rare visit to Austin, is going back to West Texas after being rehabilitated.

Why it matters: Hubble became the first big free-tailed bat documented in Travis County when he accidentally hitched a ride from the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis to the University of Texas, according to the Austin Bat Refuge.

Flashback: UT called Dianne Odegard, executive director of Austin Bat Refuge, and her co-founder Lee Mackenzie after discovering Hubble inside the physics, math, and astronomy building.

Hubble had rubbed his thumb claws completely off while trying to escape, and struggled to climb during his recovery.
"It makes us pretty happy," Odegard says of Hubble's rehabilitation. "There was no guarantee that he was going to be able to grow those thumb claws back."

Zoom in: "Mexican free tailed-bats that are common around Central Texas are about one-third of the size of the species that Hubble belongs to," Odegard tells Axios.

Austin Bat Refuge handled over 400 bats in need of rehabilitation last year, with a vast majority of those being Mexican free-tailed bats.

"We were really surprised to see him," Odegard adds.

What's next: Austin Bat Refuge volunteers will drive Hubble to Fort Davis so that he can be released around 10:30pm Friday, following the McDonald Observatory's Star Party.

Austin Bat Refuge will livestream Hubble's release on its Instagram page.

The bottom line: "We're very pleased to think that he'll be a nightly fixture in the skies over West Texas," Mackenzie says.

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Bat found at UT returning home to West Texas

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