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CLICK TO RETURN TO PAGE 2 OF LIST OF PAPERS CLICK TO RETURN TO PAGE 1 OF LIST OF PAPERS CLICK TO RETURN TO PAGE 3 OF LIST OF PAPERS 72. Krulik, Gerald, Bats, Bromeliads, and Santa Claus, PUP TALK (Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society), 17(11), p. 5-7, November, 2010. Bats, Bromeliads, and Santa Claus By Jerry Krulik I have always liked and disliked the fantasy of Santa Claus. I like the getting of presents, especially if I have not found the presents ahead of time so I could peek. I like unusual gifts, including intellectual insights, which can give me uncommon pleasure. But Santa Claus has always been a bit weird to me. Presents, YES! Coming down the chimney, maybe OK, though more likely through the windows or doors. But flying wingless reindeer? Even as a child this seemed very silly. Some recent events crystallized these long nascent thoughts. We were in Cairns, Australia, in the tropical part of Queensland and near the Great Barrier Reef. The first night there, as the sun was setting, we were watching the loud flocks of hundreds of parrots of various species who roost in the trees between the ocean and our hotel. Suddenly the first of the evening bat flight appeared! We watched hundreds of huge fruit bats which rose in a steady stream into the sky, apparently from the surrounding rain forest. These bats passed overhead for more than half an hour, on their way to night feeding areas. Later we found that the bats actually are protected inhabitants of many of the city parks, where they roost by day. The roosting photos shown here are actually a maternity roost, where only mothers and young congregate. Fathers, grandparents, and teenagers roost separately nearby. Here is a photo of a maternal colony in a city park in Cairns, Australia. I took many photos, and soon had the thought that if these bats had lived in Europe, we would have quite a different description of Santa Claus. Why not huge fruit bats pulling the sleigh? This would be much more ‘realistic’ than wingless flying hoofed grazers. But you might ask, what does this have to do with bromeliads? I am glad you are interested in asking. The largest bats are the Flying Foxes, otherwise known as Fruit Bats from their diet. These are exclusively old world tropical species, an area that sadly has no native bromeliads. However, there are plenty of much smaller New World fruit bats that coexist with bromeliads. Of course rodents are the largest mammal family, with about 40% of the species. Bats are second, with 20%; in many tropical areas, there are far more bat species than rodents. Bats are better for bromeliads because they eat fruit pulp, not seeds, while rodents prefer the seeds. A recent study showed 70% of New World bats to be insectivorous, but most of the remaining 30% were nectar and/or fruit eaters. (1) There is quite an extensive scientific literature on bat pollination and on bromeliad pollination by bats in particular. Some Vriesias, such as Vriesea fenestralis, are bat pollinated. (See photo from the Italian website (2)). Werauhia gladioliflora has been specifically studied as it is often bat pollinated (3, 4) (See photo from (4)). Bats are important pollinators of not just rain forest plants, but dry forest plants and even desert plants such as tree cacti. One study showed that six genera and 21 species of bromeliads are routinely pollinated by bats, and other studies have added more. (1, 5) I had expected to see a considerable technical literature concerning bromeliad fruit dispersal by bats, since there is an abundance of fruit-diet literature on the Asia Flying Foxes. What was surprising to me was an almost total lack of such information on New World fruit bats. I found a few non-technical remarks about bats eating wild pineapples and other, unnamed bromeliads, but that was it. Yet bats are feeders on a huge range of wild fruits, and are known to be important in dispersing the seeds of these fruits. I cannot see any particular difference between bromeliad berries and other plant berries, so I have hypothesized that bats are one of the important seed dispersers of bromeliads. Evidently this is an untouched scientific topic, something increasingly rare and hard to find. Why should there be essentially no studies of bats and bromeliad fruits? Here are some reasons: 1. Bat pollinated flowers are typically white, large, funny (musky) smelling, nocturnal, and dripping with nectar. These are easy to see and to focus on, even to set up automatic cameras to record visits. Bats like to eat small, somewhat sweet and mild tasting fruits—not funny smelling rotten ones-- like most of the bromeliad fruits I have tested. So there are no specific indicators that would tell us that any species of bromeliad berry would be exclusively or even routinely fed upon by bats. 2. Old World Fruit Bats belong to one of the two shoots in bat evolution, with the largest body size, and live in large permanent colonies, at least the ones that we have the most information about (because they live in large colonies and are easy to study!). New World Fruit Bats are members of the other branch of the bat evolutionary tree, are much smaller, and live in small temporary groups, or are solitary. So how do you study small, swift, nocturnal feeders of widely dispersed and tree top rain forest fruits? One standard method has been to study stomach contents of animals. This does not work with fruit bats, unfortunately. The speed of digestion is very rapid, fruit pulp with small seeds looks pretty much alike regardless of the plant, and everything is all mixed together. Another way that is increasingly used is study of the scats—look it up if you don’t know the word. But there are no good microscopic markers for bromeliad fruits in scats either. Now there is finally a good alternative. Assuming that you can locate small colonies of fruit bats, and collect the scats from under the roosts, you can use molecular biology/DNA analysis for identification and quantification of the importance of bromeliad fruits in bat nutrition. Bear with me just a bit longer, on this round-about discussion. It should also soon be possible to use molecular biology to increase the size of fruit bats to a more useful size, say the size of eagles or vultures. Bats fly at night too, while reindeer should be sleeping. Then it should be simple for Santa Claus to hitch a few dozen giant bats to his sleigh, reward them with tossed chunks of pineapple, and finally have a realistic Christmas story. Now the grandkids can listen for the friendly flapping of the giant bat wings, instead of the clomping of nonsensical reindeer on the rooftops, as they wait for their well-deserved presents. Here is a photo of the sunset fruit bat flight. The Chinese, and evidently modern day Australians, consider bats to be lucky. The next photo from a bit later in the sunset, shows dramatically how the exposure speed has lengthened. This is spooky, more like a Halloween ghost diorama. References: 1. The evolution of bat pollination: a phylogenetic perspective by Theodore H. Fleming, Cullen Geiselman, and W. John Kress, Ann Bot (2009) doi: 10.1093/aob/mcp197 First published online: September 29, 2009 2. http://www.elicriso.it/es/como_cultivar/vriesea/. Photo of V. fenestralis 3. Reproductive biology of the epiphytic bromeliad Werauhia gladioliflora in a premontane tropical forest, Cascante-Marín A, Oostermeijer JG, Wolf JH, den Nijs JC, Plant Biol (Stuttg). 2005 Mar;7(2): 203-9 4. Phenology, Nectar Production and Visitation Behaviour of Bats on the Flowers of the Bromeliad Werauhia gladioliflora in a Costa Rican Lowland Rain Forest, Marco Tschapka and Otto von Helversen, Journal of Tropical Ecology,Vol. 23, No. 4 (Jul., 2007): 385-395 5. Patterns and Ecological Correlates of Pollination Modes Among Bromeliad Communities of Andean Forests in Bolivia, M. Kessler, T. Krömer, Plant biol (Stuttg) 2000; 2(6): 659-669, DOI: 10.1055 /s-2000-16642 6. Fruit bat photos by Jerry in Cairns, Australia. |
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