El Paso Zoo teams adopts out agave plants to save endangered bats

EL PASO, Texas- The El Paso Zoo has teamed up with conservation groups and Sul Ross University to help the endangered long nosed bat.

The El Paso Zoo is adopting out agave plants that were innitially potted by the students at Sul Ross.

Then they asked 100 El Pasoans to adopt the plants for a year and then bring them back to the zoo so they can be planted in the Davis Mountains where the bats go for the summer.

“They are like the cafeteria plant of the desert.  And than what is so spectacular and interesting is after the plant spends all these years storing up energy to grow a flower stalk.  It produces this flower, the whole plant dies,” said Education Curator Rick Lo Bello with the El Paso Zoo.

He added "They are native to this area, they grow here in El Paso, many people landscape with agave plants and they are the most spectacular plant I think you'll ever encounter in the Chihuahuan desert."