Each spring and fall, Westcave tracks the seasonal return and departure of its free-tailed bats through systematic emergence counts. Since the installation of a large-capacity megabat house—generously donated by Merlin Tuttle’s Bat Conservation—the preserve has recorded peak emergence counts of up to 667 bats exiting the structure at sunset, using a manual clicker method. The structure can house up to 1,000 bats and provides a unique opportunity to monitor population trends and activity patterns from May to November. These evening counts, conducted at the Uplands megahouse, offer valuable insights into seasonal bat behavior and habitat use.

Westcave also used sound monitoring to detect and identify bat species across the preserve. Using recorders paired with spectrograph analysis and auto-classification software, researchers analyze call patterns of bats to determine the statistical likelihood of species presence. This method has helped confirm seven bat species at Westcave, including the Western small-footed bat, American perimyotis, Eastern red bat, Brazilian free-tailed bat, Hoary bat, and Big brown bat.