Fieldwork We head to a jungle in Cuba to look for a rare flower. I’ve never seen one like it before. A ring of pale blooms sticks out like a skirt. Red cups filled with nectar dangle under them. Scientists thought that hummingbirds, not


bats, pollinated this flower. T ey’d seen the birds sip its nectar. In Cuba, Simon sees that, too, but he reaches a diff erent conclusion. He sees that the bird is so small that it hovers between the flowers and nectar cups. It doesn’t touch the blooms or get dusted by pollen. It just steals nectar! So to survive, this flower needs to attract a bigger pollinator. It needs a bat. T at means it needs a way to call a bat. Based on Simon’s lab experiments, we look


for a curved leaf. We spot one! A waxy, curved leaf grows just above the ring of blooms. It could make echoes and call bats. Soon, we see that it works. A bat flies to the


This bird is a thief! It steals nectar without taking pollen. This bat is a helper. Its head brushes the pollen as it drinks nectar.


flower. I take photos as it squeezes its furry body between the blooms and the cups of nectar. As the bat flies off , I see pollen dust on its head. T is flower definitely called the right pollinator.


Sounds bounce off this cactus fl ower but get absorbed by the fuzz. That helps a bat fi nd the fl ower.


This leaf calls a bat!


14 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXPLORER


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