Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Wooly Bat and Carnivorous Plant Sybiosis


Professor Ulmar Grafe noticed that Hardwicke's woolly bats were regularly roosting in Nepenthes hemsleyana pitcher plants in Brunei (on the tropical island of Borneo).

 The benefits for the bats appears quite obvious, as this particular species of pitcher plant has a very low level of digestive fluid, meaning the bats can safely roost in an environment sheltered from predators and without fear of being eaten by enzymes.

Pitcher plants typically grow in areas where the soil is very nitrogen depleted, hence their reliance on a carnivorous life style.

Under further investigation Grafe found that the plants gained 33% of their nitrogen not from feeding on insects but from the droppings of the bats, showing strong evidence for an intriguing case of mutualism.

Source: Bat Conservation Intnl website www.batcon.org

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