Nectarine bats

2002/09/02 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Botanika
• Zoologia

Many bats eat insects, but there are also others that are vegetarian. This bat, which appears in the image, has as main food the nectar produced by flowers.

Australia's common flower bat is one of the smallest known bats, not exceeding eight centimeters. It feeds at night and, like bees, spends all night uniting nectar flower. When you find a flower with nectar, put your head into the flower and heal with your long tongue the nectar that accumulates at the bottom of the flower.

Nectar-producing flowers use bats for pollination work. They produce nectar only at night and to attract bats they give off a penetrating smell. Bats, to take the nectar of flowers, have to touch with their heads a part full of pollen. So, when you go to catch the nectar of the next flower, you will carry the pollen with it and you will be able to reproduce the plant.