"Happy October, Gardeners!
I wanted to start off by thanking those of you who reached out to me, it is so nice to receive your warm welcomes.
Now that Fall is here, I would encourage you to consider how you clean up your fallen leaves and dead flowers. Many pollinators hibernate through the winter and will use leaves and hollowed out flower stems as places to sleep through the season. I like to rake my leaves into my flower beds to not only provide a place for hibernation, but to also act as much needed mulch. Here is an interesting article from the Bee City USA nonprofit on the topic: https://xerces.org/blog/where-do-pollinators-go-in-winter
This month I wish to highlight bats and their roles as vital pollinators since National Bat Week is October 23rd through the 31st. They are greatly misunderstood animals, and I believe that is a great shame considering they are the only mammal capable of true flight! I recently read an essay titled, “In Praise of Bats,” which is part of the book, The Moon by Whale Light, by Diane Ackerman, and it is Diane’s experience going on an expedition with Dr. Merlin Tuttle, one of the world’s leading bat experts, in the 1990s. She describes Tuttle as, “an explorer whose cliff-hanging exploits put Indiana Jones to shame,” and she was not wrong. When I got to the part where Tuttle describes his journey in Peru, I found myself gasping as he encountered one wild obstacle after another and survived!
You may be asking yourself, “but Brianna, what do bats actually pollinate?” Diane’s essay gave a pretty comprehensive list: avocados, figs, guavas, peaches, mangoes, carob, cloves, cashews, and much more. She even mentions that Bacardi, the alcohol company, acknowledges the role bats play in their production of tequila and even have a bat as their logo as well as being regular contributors to Dr. Tuttle’s conservation efforts.
I first heard about Dr. Tuttle on a podcast I enjoy, “Ologies with Ali Ward,” which I highly recommend. If you haven’t been introduced to this podcast before, Ali interviews scientists about their specialties and has such a fun and refreshing approach (language warning). To learn more about the two-part episode series featuring Dr. Tuttle, you can click here: Chiropterology.
Links to Dr. Merlin Tuttle’s books:
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