hey little bat!

December 30, 2009 We signed up for the Sunset Tour the first night we were there. It's a relatively short walking tour of the grounds near the restaurant, that occurs right before dinner. It is astounding that we have no idea what is really going on out there in the darkness. Unless, of course, we venture out - with a knowledgeable guide - and see it for ourselves. I mean, we could have just as easily not signed up for this tour and headed straight to dinner, complacent but completely unaware of all the activity and wonder that was happening around us... blue moon We met up with Philip Davison, the resident biologist and ever-so-knowledgeable tour guide, with flashlights in hand and - under a  blue moon  - off we went into the darkness... The first stop was at some palms, under which the tent-making bats  will sometimes roost. Tent-making bats! (I got so excited!) Bosque del Cabo has tent-making bats! We didn't see any though, only evidence that these ...

I hate to say this, but the Night Walk at the Ecological Sanctuary and the trip to the World of Insects was kinda lame. It seems like the better guides are not working during the holiday season. Still glad we went though. During the Night Walk, we spent a lot of time searching for an owl. The guide was just completely obsessed with finding this thing and unfortunately was unsuccessful. We saw a gigantic tarantula in a dug-out shelter, a few sleeping birds, and an ant mound of 5 million ants. I did notice the blue and glistening eyeshine of a spider by myself because I had been reading about this. That was my highlight. banana trees in the moonlight gigantic mound of 5 million ants Afterwards, we had dinner at a fancyish restaurant in our smelly hiking clothes. I remember it being overpriced and good but not great. I think it was called Sophia . Later, we got back to our chilly treehouse, and I photographed some bugs through the windows, trying to capture the eyeshine. bugs succe...

help...stuck... (Anoura caudifer) - photo by Nathan Muchhala No, this nectar-feeding bat is not really stuck. (Nor what I would call a dainty eater.) Bats are known to push their heads into bat-flowers to lap up the nectar. Anoura caudifer - photo by Nathan Muchhala Anoura fistulata - photo by Nathan Muchhala Indeed. (I love these photos! They're so funny to me!) A bat will insert its head into the flower - even when its tongue is longer than the flower's tube. It extends its tongue as much as it needs to, then retracts it, lapping the nectar much like a dog drinks water. By pushing its head into the flower, the bat collects lots of pollen on its head and chest, inadvertently transferring it to the next flower. Moths are also nectar-feeders; however, when a moth drinks nectar, its tongue acts as a straw. So if a moth evolves a tongue longer than the floral tube, it could potentially partake of the flower's nectar without actually pollinating it. Therefore, the flower is a...

I see you! Geoffroy's tailless bat (Anoura Geoffroyi) - photo by Nathan Muchhala Ever since coming across this word, I can't stop saying it: chiropterophily. Chiropterophily, or pollination of plants by bats, is very common in the tropics. Hundreds of tropical plant species are exclusively or at least partly pollinated by nectar-feeding bats. Many tropical flowers are night-blooming, specializing in attracting bats. Bat-flowers are typically white, cream, or pale green in color, making them easier to see in the dark. They usually have a musky, fermented odor - like that of the bat - or sometimes a fruity odor. They have a large, sturdy, open shape with long, bushy anthers so that the bat's head and chest get coated in pollen when it visits. In return for the bat pollinating the flower, the flower provides the nectar that these high-energy flying mammals need.* Tube-lipped nectar bat (Anoura fistulata) - photo by Nathan Muchhala Nectivorous bats have both good eyesight an...

Inside a tropical rainforest, there's not a lot of wind, apart from high up in the canopy, and plant species tend to be very rare and quite far away from each other. Therefore wind pollination is not an effective means of plant reproduction. The preferred method is animal pollination, and many fascinating processes have evolved both in the pollinizer (the plant) and pollinator (the animal). It's a coevolutionary process - both plants and pollinators become specialized to attract each other. Tropical plants have evolved flowers that entice their preferred pollinator - be it hummingbird, insect, or bat - so that the pollinator will hopefully carry the plant's genes, via the pollen, to another plant of the same species. Sometimes it entices by rewards like nectar - making it a mutualistic relationship - sometimes by trickery,* but it will match its characteristics to the characteristics of a specific pollinator and discourage all other pollinators. At the same time, the poll...