To my surprise, I found in reading a National Geographic article that there is a strong connection between bats and tequila. Tequila comes from a spiky, stocky, blue plant called agave, which rely on multiple bat species for pollination, one of them being the lesser long-nosed bat. Without bats there would be no tequila, which is why the removal of lesser long-nosed bats from the endangered list is such good news for tequila drinkers everywhere. This is good news for all humanity in fact, as it shows how efforts to conserve the Earth and its species is really paying off. In a joint effort between Mexico and the United States, conservation scientists were able to raise the lesser long-nosed bat population from about 1,000 to over 200,000 in the span of thirty years.
This was the first ever bat removed from the U.S endangered species list, which has come a long way be completely stable and void of all threats to its species’ survival. Due to the fact that these bats spend large amounts of time in both Mexico and the United States, both countries had to work together to conserve the species. By identifying the symbiotic relationship between bats and agave plants, scientists were able to develop a plan which would conserve the plants and protect the bats. One program implemented to help the lesser long-nosed bats was to certify tequila producers as “bat friendly” if they allowed these bats to pollinate their agave plant, which helped to supply more food for the bats. It took many years and many different programs in order to bring these bats off the endangered list, while there are still some bat species that remain threatened. The Earth is facing many challenges with climate change, which will require much more environmental conservation efforts. But for now, its important to reflect on the successful efforts to help protect the planet, it’s species, and tequila.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/04/lesser-long-nosed-bats-conservation-delisted-endangered-animals-spd/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_tw20180418news-endangeredbat&utm_campaign=Content&sf187238935=1
-James Bowler (3)
Well this was an interesting read! I love my tequila so we definitely should protect these bats! It's such an eye-opener reading articles like these because you really forget how everything traces back to nature and is dependent upon this for successful production. I didn't know bats were involved in the tequila process and I didn't even know bats were capable of pollination or even ate plant species, for some reason I thought they ate mice or small animals. Always nice gaining more knowledge!
ReplyDelete-Kamilla Leao (2)
I can't believe that bats are involved in the making of tequila, that is so interesting. So does that mean if we didn't have bats around we wouldn't be accessible to tequila? Thats kind of a sad idea to think about. Not only for the bat population but for our benefits too.
ReplyDeletePosted by Sarah Aboody (1)
I do believe that there would be no tequila without the pollination by the bats, which is pretty sad. It would be very unfortunate if it ever came to the point where the bats were no longer around to give us tequila.
DeleteYou don't often hear positive stories about conservation in modern times, so this really is a great success! What other species of bats are involved in the pollination of agave? Are they endangered or threatened? The fact that this one was saved from extinction is exciting, especially considering the fact that it was a joint effort between two countries. A bonus of more tequila is definitely a plus.
ReplyDeleteHarris Jackson (1)
I find this article relevant because I just learned the other day that tequila is made from the agave plant, and that the agave plant numbers were dwindling. Such great news that this bat is off of the endangered species list! This provides hope for the agave plant in the future as well I'm sure!
ReplyDelete-- Hannah Kullberg (2)
This is an incredible finding in science! I actually just learned that theres a current decline in tequila worldwide due to temperature changes causes less mature agave plants during the peak of harvest. This over time has been increasing to a point where tequila was going to be a lot harder to acquire. This was the change that needed to happen to prevent any further decline.
ReplyDelete-Katherine Patota (3)
It's really impressive that conservation scientists were able to raise the population of the lesser long-nosed bat from 1,000 to 200,000! Thirty years really isn't a long timespan when it comes to repopulation tasks such as this. And of course, the preservation of the tequila supply is a pretty great bonus :)
ReplyDelete-Nicole Ayres (1)
I agree that the raise in population size seems very impressive with such a drastic change. Really shows how big of an impact we can have on other species.
DeleteGreat article! Pollinators are absolutely essential to the fragile ecosystems that make up the world. Without them, all our food would cease to exist! Save the bees (and the bats)!
ReplyDelete-Colby Ells (1)