SAN ANTONIO – Inside the surgery room at the San Antonio Zoo Tuesday, bat after bat faced a procedure, which for some, is hard to watch.
"It's similar to what you would see at a dog or cat neuter," said the San Antonio Zoo's Dr. Rob Coke.
Male bats were put under anesthesia and their testicles were removed. They would later be marked and given pain medication during recovery.
"We've already done 350, give or take a few, (and) we have another 150 to 200 to do today," said Coke.
In other words, a lot of bats came through the surgery center on Monday and Tuesday -- all of them from the zoo's male population of South American Short-Tailed Fruit bats.
Neutering a bat is not uncommon, according to Coke, but performing the process on this many at once, is.
"As far as I know, no one has ever neutered this many bats in this large of a quantity," said Coke.
The reason for the move was a recent census that showed around 1,000 bats in the zoo's exhibit, with the male-to-female ratio being nearly equal. The number was expected to continue to grow and raised concerns for the health of the colony.
"You can only house so many people in a room without starvation, without things such as population stress. You have to roost somewhere and carve out your own little space," said Coke.
The best solution was to neuter the male population, a move Coke believed would eventually keep the population at a safe level, and keep the colony healthy and thriving.