PHIL LATZMAN: It’s a June evening near Phoenix/Paradise Valley border and the temperature is 108 degrees. But there’s a cool spot, literally and figuratively.
I’m walking with Angie McIntire, who is the bat specialist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. Alongside a canal and tucked into the ground is a 2-mile long flood control tunnel. And inside, it’s fluttering with activity.
ANGIE MCINTIRE: The species that lives in this tunnel is a very adaptable species. It’s the Mexican free-tailed bat. It lives in urban situations quite readily. This tunnel has been here since the mid-1990s when it was created to prevent flooding in the Phoenix area. The bats moved in somewhere around the late 1990s. So, structures like this that keep bat species cooler in our hot summers are quite popular with certain species of bats.
PHIL LATZMAN: And when it comes to diversity, Arizona ranks second only to Texas with 29 different species. But these are big city bats…