Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area
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Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area
Devil's Sinkhole State Natural Area is a natural bat habitat near the city of Rocksprings in Edwards County in the U.S. state of Texas. Carved by water erosion, the cavern is home to several million Mexican free-tailed bats that emerge at sunset during April through October. History The Devil's Sinkhole is a vertical natural bat habitat. The opening drops down to reveal a cavern some below. While likely known to native peoples, the cavern was first discovered in modern times by Ammon Billings, a local rancher leading a scouting party of five, west of Hackberry Creek in Edwards County in 1876. Billings fired at a marauding party of hostile Indians and believed he hit one. Fearing a trap, they did not pursue the Indians but returned to the area the following day, May 21, 1876 with their spouses. It was then that the sinkhole was first encountered by Ammon Billings. Billings wife, Lucinde Katherine Billings (née Stroop) and other wives in the returning party dubbed the sinkh ...
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Texas Parks And Wildlife Department
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) is a Texas state agency that oversees and protects wildlife and their habitats. In addition, the agency is responsible for managing the state's parks and historical areas. Its mission is to manage and conserve the natural and cultural resources of Texas and to provide hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The agency maintains its headquarters at 4200 Smith School Road in Austin. History In 1895, the Texas Legislature created the Fish and Oyster Commission to regulate fishing. The legislature added the Game Department to the commission in 1907. The Legislature created the State Parks Board as a separate entity in 1923. In 1963, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department was formed through merger of the State Parks Board and the Game and Fish Commission. In 1983, the Texas legislature passed the Wildlife Conservation Act, giving the department the authority ...
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Rocksprings, Texas
Rocksprings is a town in Edwards County, Texas, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 1,182, down from 1,285 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Edwards County. The town received its name from natural springs associated with the porous limestone rocks in the area. History J. R. Sweeten sited Rocksprings in 1891 because of the springs nearby. Also in 1891, the town acquired a post office and was made county seat. The original courthouse built in the town burned in 1897. By 1914, Rocksprings had a population around 500. During the early 1900s, hostilities between Anglos and Mexicans along the "Brown Belt" were common. In Rocksprings, Antonio Rodriguez, a twenty-year-old Mexican, was burned at the stake by a white mob for allegedly killing a white woman, Effie Greer Henderson. This event was widely publicized and protests against the treatment of Mexicans in the U.S. erupted within the interior of Mexico, namely in Guadalajara and Mexico Ci ...
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Edwards County, Texas
Edwards County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census its population was 1,422. The county seat is Rocksprings. The county was created in 1858 and organized in 1883. It is named for Haden Edwards, an early settler of Nacogdoches, Texas. The Edwards Aquifer and Edwards Plateau are named after the county by reason of their locations. History * The early inhabitants were Lipan Apache and Comanche. * 1762 Looking for protection from Comanches, Lipan Apache chief El Gran Cabezón persuades Franciscans and the Spanish military to establish San Lorenzo de la Santa Cruz Mission on the Nueces River. The Mission was abandoned in 1771. * 1825 Virginia born Haden Harrison Edwards joins forces with Stephen F. Austin and contracts with Coahuila y Tejas to move 800 families into east Texas. In 1826 Edwards announces the creation of the Republic of Fredonia near Nacogdoches, an early attempt to secede from Mexico. Stephen F. Austin j ...
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Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by both List of U.S. states and territories by area, area (after Alaska) and List of U.S. states and territories by population, population (after California). Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, states of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south and southwest; and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast. Houston is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas and the List of United States cities by population, fourth-largest in the U.S., while San Antonio is the second most pop ...
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Mexican Free-tailed Bat
The Mexican free-tailed bat or Brazilian free-tailed bat (''Tadarida brasiliensis'') is a medium-sized bat native to the Americas, so named because its tail can be almost half its total length and is not attached to its uropatagium. It has been claimed to have the fastest horizontal speed of any animal, reaching top ground speeds over . It also flies the highest among bats, at altitudes around . It is regarded as one of the most abundant mammals in North America. Its proclivity towards roosting in huge numbers at relatively few locations makes it vulnerable to habitat destruction in spite of its abundance. For instance, up to 1.5 million bats reside under just one bridge in Austin. The Texas Legislature designated the Mexican free-tailed bat the state mammal (flying) in 1995. The bat is considered a species of special concern in California as a result of declining populations. Taxonomy The Mexican free-tailed bat was described as a new species in 1824 by French zoologist Isi ...
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Bat Conservation International
Bat Conservation International (BCI) is an international nongovernmental organization working to conserve bats and their habitats through conservation, education, and research efforts. BCI was founded in 1982 by bat biologist Merlin Tuttle, who led the organization until his retirement in 2009. Since its establishment, BCI has formed partnerships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and many national and international agencies and nonprofits, and has produced publications, workshops, scholarships, and research, and site-specific projects in the US and internationally. BCI employs a staff of 30 biologists, educators, and administrators and has members in 60 countries. Conservation strategies BCI operates by its "10 critical conservation strategies": 1) Accelerating scientific research 2) Preventing extinction 3) Protecting intact areas with highly diverse bat communities 4) Preserving megapopulations of bats 5) Creating global and regional partnerships 6) Addressing threats imp ...
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List Of Museums In Central Texas
The list of museums in Texas encompasses museums defined for this context as institutions (including nonprofit organizations, government entities, and private businesses) that collect and care for objects of cultural, artistic, scientific, or historical interest and make their collections or related exhibits available for public viewing. Also included are non-profit art galleries and exhibit spaces. Closed museums and museums that exist only in cyberspace (i.e., virtual museums) are not included. Central Texas Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is roughly bordered by Greater San Antonio to the Texas Hill Country to McLennan County to Washington County. Counties included are Bandera, Bastrop, Bell, Bexar, Blanco, Bosque, Brazos, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Comanche, Coryell, Falls, Fayette, Freestone, Gillespie, Grimes, Hamilton, Hays, Hill, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Lampasas, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Llano, Madison, Mason, Mc ...
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List Of Sinkholes
The following is a list of sinkholes, blue holes, dolines, crown holes, cenotes, and pit caves. A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. Some are caused by karst processes—for example, the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes. Sinkholes vary in size from both in diameter and depth, and vary in form from soil-lined bowls to bedrock-edged chasms. Sinkholes may form gradually or suddenly, and are found worldwide. 21st century sinkholes * 2007 Guatemala City sinkhole – a deep sinkhole which formed in Guatemala City in 2007, due to sewage pipe ruptures. * 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole – a disaster in which an area approximately across and deep collapsed in Guatemala City, swallowing a three-story factory. * 2012 Ottawa sinkhole – Regional Road 174 at the Jeanne D'Arc interchange on September 4, 2012. * 2014 Ottawa sinkhole – at the LRT tunnelling site at Waller Street, j ...
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National Register Of Historic Places Listings In Edwards County, Texas
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Edwards County, Texas. This is intended to be a complete list of properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Edwards County, Texas. There is one property listed on the National Register in the county. The property is also a State Antiquities Landmark and a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark. Current listings The locations of National Register properties may be seen in a mapping service provided. See also *National Register of Historic Places listings in Texas *Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Edwards County The following is a partial list of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (RTHLs) arranged by county as designated by the Texas Historical Commission and local county historical commissions in Texas. This page includes RTHLs in the following counties: E ... References External links {{Edwards County, Texas Edwards County, Texas Edwards County Buildings and structures ...
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Bat Conservation
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out digits covered with a thin membrane or patagium. The smallest bat, and arguably the smallest extant mammal, is Kitti's hog-nosed bat, which is in length, across the wings and in mass. The largest bats are the flying foxes, with the giant golden-crowned flying fox, ''Acerodon jubatus'', reaching a weight of and having a wingspan of . The second largest order of mammals after rodents, bats comprise about 20% of all classified mammal species worldwide, with over 1,400 species. These were traditionally divided into two suborders: the largely fruit-eating megabats, and the echolocating microbats. But more recent evidence has supported dividing the order into Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera ...
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Protected Areas Of Edwards County, Texas
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although the mechanisms for providing protection vary widely, the basic meaning of the term remains the same. This is illustrated by an explanation found in a manual on electrical wiring: Some kind of protection is a characteristic of all life, as living things have evolved at least some protective mechanisms to counter damaging environmental phenomena, such as ultraviolet light. Biological membranes such as bark on trees and skin on animals offer protection from various threats, with skin playing a key role in protecting organisms against pathogens and excessive water loss. Additional structures like scales and hair offer further protection from the elements and from predators, with some animals having features such as spines or camouflage s ...
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State Parks Of Texas
State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our State'', a monthly magazine published in North Carolina and formerly called ''The State'' * The State (Larry Niven), a fictional future government in three novels by Larry Niven Music Groups and labels * States Records, an American record label * The State (band), Australian band previously known as the Cutters Albums * ''State'' (album), a 2013 album by Todd Rundgren * ''States'' (album), a 2013 album by the Paper Kites * ''States'', a 1991 album by Klinik * ''The State'' (album), a 1999 album by Nickelback Television * ''The State'' (American TV series), 1993 * ''The State'' (British TV series), 2017 Other * The State (comedy troupe), an American comedy troupe Law and politics * State (polity), a centralized political organizatio ...
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