It is with a heavy heart that we bring you the news that Andy, a Brazilian free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis), passed away on June 3, 2016, two months after his 15th birthday.

Andy was born at Bat World Sanctuary on April 12, 2001. Free-tailed bats are estimated to live 15 years in the wild, however,  Andy’s mother, Andrea, passed away in 2011 at the age of 19. Andy was an accidental birth and part of a behavioral study conducted on the mating behavior of T. brasiliensis, published in the Southwestern Naturalist.

Andy never learned to feed himself in captivity so he was hand fed twice daily every single day. During his life span with us he received 11,052 hand fed meals. Goodbye sweet Andy, you are sorely missed, especially twice a day at feeding time.

This video created in celebration of Andy’s 15th Birthday.