Pollination


Flowers from the durian tree


Pom-pom shaped flowers from the Perepat tree


The large, sweetly scented flowers of the baobab tree


Chiropterophily (The pollination of plants by bats) is used by hundreds of plants world wide, including agave, (which is use to produce tequila) kapok, cashews, guavas, breadfruit, avocados, balsa wood, rambutans, mangosteens, durian, and many important trees used as fuel or for lumber for houses, canoes, and carvings such as the iroko tree of Africa, prized for its teak like wood, mahogany trees, black bean trees, an important source of wood in Australia. They also pollinate countless other plants that are very important to ecosystems such as saguaro cacti of Mexico and Southern USA, Perepat trees of Southeast Asia, Australian Eucalyptus trees, the leaves of which are famous for being the diet of koala bears, and baobab trees, known to many Africans as 'The Tree of Life', providing food, water, medicine and shelter for both humans and other animals as well.


Lesser Dawn Bat hovering over durian flowers

Other plants such as bananas no longer rely on chiropterophily on plantations, but still rely on them in the wild, and if banana growers want new genetics to fight new diseases or for plants that give more fruit, they must keep the wild populations of bananas healthy. Unfortunately, not everyone sees them well, and many bats are being destroyed because of ignorance and fear. Popular misconceptions, such as that all bats are either crop pests or bloodthirsty vampires that prefer human blood has led to the widespread destruction of bats. In India, all but two critically endangered species of bats out of 112 are classified as vermin, along with rats and cockroaches! Many bat conservation groups are working on this issue, with little success. As well as being needlessly slaughtered, flying foxes are a delicacy in many areas of Southeast Asia, leading to all too frequent poaching of bats for food. Several species of bats are on the brink of extinction for this reason, and some have become extinct.

Seed Dispersal

 As well as pollinating, bats also disperse the seed of many plants, such as mangoes, papayas, peaches, dates, figs, carob and many more plants by eating the fruit and, while flying over a new area, such as a forested clearing, defecate, moving the seed(s) to new areas where they have a chance to grow. In fact, bats account for over 95% of regrowth in forested areas of rain forests. Bats are very important animals!