Fieldwork We head to a jungle in Cuba to look for a rare flower. It has a ring of pale blooms that stick 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 fl owers 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


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.


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 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.


This leaf calls a bat!


The fuzz on this cactus absorbs sounds, but they bounce off the fl ower. That helps a bat fi nd the fl ower.


22 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER


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