Pollinators in the Dark: Bats and their Flowers

Bat diversity around the world includes remarkable adaptations, including species that are highly specialized to drink nectar and pollinate flowers. Worldwide, bats pollinate about 500 different plant species, some of which are commercially important, such as durian in southeast Asia, columnar cacti that produce pitaya fruits in Mexico, and, of course, the wild cultivars of agave for mescal and tequila. Nectar feeding bats live in tropical habitats, although some nectar-feeding bat species perform long distance migrations, following a nectar corridor in Mexico into the southwestern United States.

Speaker Winifred Frick, UC Santa Cruz