15th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Natural World
Dinner time

Bats play an essencial role to ecosystems functioning. As they are incredibly diverse, with more than 1200 species worldwide, and their capability of flight (unique among mammals), they occupy a huge set of functions and habitats in nature unavailable to other animals. There are several species of fruit bats, nectar feeding bats, insectivorous bats and even carnivorous bats, which prey upon small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fishes. The production of the largely consumed “tequila”, for example, is highly dependent of bat pollination of Agave plants in Central America.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 07.2015
Date Uploaded: 11.2017
Photo Location: Santana dos Montes, Brazil
Camera: Canon EOS 50D
Copyright: © Augusto Gomes