Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 28 January 2020

Valuable pollinators and associated superstitious beliefs Episode 54- LIV

ORANJESTAD — Bats provide humans with uncalculal benefits at the cost
of some threats. Bats are great pollinaters and feeds basicly from night-
blooming columnar cactus flowers and fruits and agave flowers and
many indangerd plants and trees of the island. Bat dung has been mined
as guano from caves and used as fertilizer. A healthy bat population is
crucial for a healthy ecosystem. In Aruba approximately eigth different
bat species have been identified: insect eating bats, fruit and nectar eat-
ing bats. Both insectivores and frugivores species are masters when it
comes to preserving a balance in our islands fragil biodiversity. If only
we aknowledge how endangered these flying friends are and how to
preserve their habitad.

Insectivorous bats banquit on insects from sundown and darker hours, saving
the islands anually budged millions of aruban florins of imported toxics pesti-
cides. There are fewer insects when bats are around that hunts insects and
there are less insect pests that causes damage to vegetables and garden
plants. If open air agriculture is to become a next call, farmers don’t have to
invest as much in pesticides and will build bat roosting boxes in order to wel-
kome them to stay and propagate while collecting their fertilizing guano. One
bat eats equally up to three times their weigth on an average night!

Several species of bats of Aruba eat nectar. As mentioned, many types of our
endemic plants of our ecosystem rely on bats for pollination and seed disper-
sal, such as the quebedexi and huliba tree. The agave species, the cande-
labra cacti’s such as the cadushi, the cadushi plushi and the breba etc. All
around the island and in our national park, long-nose and long-tongue bats
are perfectly adapted to pollinate these plants, and they provide extensive
value to the biosphere. So next time you see our agave in bloom say thank
you to the bats.

People are often fascinated with bats. In fact, one of the largest tourist attrac-
tions in Austin Texas is where more than 1.5 million bats roost during the summer
months. More than 100,000 tourists come to this area annually.

Bats are associated with different cultures and mean different things to different
people.
In many cultures, bats are popularly associated with darkness, evil, witchcraft
and death.
Continued on next page