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Carlsbad’s 8 million ‘lost’ bats likely never existed

Thermal imaging and algorithms challenge famous estimate

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Eight million is a lot of bats to lose, and now a new unpublished study may explain what happened to the possibly lost bats of Carlsbad Cavern.

EMERGING FROM DARKNESS A view of Carlsbad Cavern’s mouth shows bats swarming out to forage. Thermal imaging and a computer algorithm suggest the cave may host 8 million fewer bats than earlier estimates implied.