Mexican fruit bats help desert flowers

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South of the border the chupacabra haunts the night. Far-flung farms and ranches of rural Mexico live in fear of a predator described a great living creature that is half-animal and half-bat. It flies with bat wings, baring fangs and claws used to mutilate livestock. Some believe that bats are somehow linked to this rarely seen predator, and roosting caves may be its ultimate lair. The Mexican government is concerned that locals are destroying bat roosts to keep the monster at bay.Such is the lore of a modern day Dracula that haunts the North American deserts. It is probably rooted in fear of vampire bats which feed upon livestock blood in South America. But in the Southwest there are no blood eating bats and a great number of them are complete vegetarians. In fact, this Mexican longnose bat behaves more like a hummingbird of the night, helping to pollinate our most magnificent desert plants. They are even important to spreading the range of these species after foraging on overripe fruit rich with seed.These tiny, nearly toothless bats breed and winter in Mexico. Come spring millions of females leave their male counterparts, with newborn young at their side. They herd the offspring northward, timing their departure for the peak of the desert blooms. This journey is a lesson for the young in what plants offer rich supplies of nutritious nectar and fruit. During the day they sleep in trees, nooks in cliffs or caves, then come out at night to travel and feed.Fruit bats actually behave differently from their insect eating brothers making it easier to spot them by their flight pattern. Insect eaters flit and flutter as they use their echolocation to home in on flying insects, their primary food source. The longnose has large eyes and quite good vision, so echolocation is not vital to feeding. This bat feeds on flowers, using its sight to pick out flowers and zero in on the nectar source deep at the center of the floral throat. The bat flies directly toward a flower then hovers over it to feed. The long nose is buried deep inside pollen rich stamens, which sometimes engulf this small creature as they drink from the nectarines. In the process their fur becomes covered in sticky yellow pollen. Later while cleaning themselves just like a cat, the bats consume this nutritious pollen, adding yet another dimension to their vegetarian diet.This is the reason why many southwestern native plants bear their flowers so high up. They must be seen by the bats and be easily accessible to the hovering visitor. This explains the giant saguaro cactus and their cousins the cardons which bloom at the very top of their tall, tree sized forms. And it tells us why the Queen of the Night, a vine cactus climbs into the trees to open its enormous foot long trumpets to the moon. The desert agave of southern California and Arizona produces some of the tallest stalks relative to their size in the entire agave world. Flowers are shiny gold in color to attract the bats compared to other more muted species which are pollinated by bees and hummingbirds. Fruit bat populations are at risk as much of the Southwest is developed and food plants grow more few and far between. Fears of chupacabra present their own unique threats too. The Mexican government has initiated programs to encourage planting certain agaves along the roads to supply a more uniform food source for the migratory bats. Perhaps if all of us who live in the bats' flyway worked harder to grow nectar rich natives of the desert Southwest instead of exotics, we too may contribute to their survival. After all, these little veggie bat mothers and babies that carry the all too heavy baggage of their carnivorous relatives and the legendary chupacabra.(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and former host of "Weekend Gardening" on DIY Network. Her blog, the MoZone, offers a groundbreaking series of great ideas for cash strapped families to live more richly on less this year. Read the blog at www.MoPlants.com/blog. E-mail her at mogilmer(at)yahoo.com)(Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and former host of "Weekend Gardening" on DIY Network.)