agave and bats

[Guest guest]

from the Friends of Animals summer e-mail

The True Story of Agave Nectar

A Sweet Gift of Nature, and the Vegetarian Bats Who Keep It Alive

by Edita Birnkrant & Lee Hall | Summer 2006

With its great taste, its liquid consistency, and its healthful properties,

agave nectar is a perfect sweetener for any recipe. Readers might know agave as

the “century plant,†with its semi-succulent leaves that form rosettes, and

its central, flowering stalk. European settlers thought the regal plant bloomed

only once in a century, but the plants approach maturity at 10 to 30 years of

age. One type, the blue agave, is the plant from which tequila is derived.

 

Agave plants grow on well-drained, rocky slopes, where they control soil erosion

and help to speed up natural restoration of degraded woodlands and grasslands.

As these plants mature, they accumulate a great store of sugary nectar. Various

species are adapted for pollination by insects, hummingbirds or nectar-eating

bats.

 

In the Sonoran Desert region, where Arizona meets Mexico, agave, and cacti such

as organ pipe and saguaro burst into flowers on warm nights in late spring and

summer. The flowers may last only a night. But as they open, tens of thousands

of nectar bats and their young arrive in time to drink their energy-rich nectar.

 

Today, this natural drama is endangered by human fear of these gentle mammals,

by cattle ranching, and stepped-up border construction along the bats’

migratory route.

 

A Crucial Relationship

From late October to December, many adult bats are known to congregate and mate

inside a cave near Cuernavaca, in central Mexico. Bats give birth to one,

possibly two youngsters in the spring. Young bats nurse for about one month and

can normally fly by five weeks of age. Mother bats leave their mates in Mexico

and fly with their young northward through the desert, following the

south-to-north wave of spring-blooming succulent plants. Compact vegetarians,

nectar bats have long, slender noses that are perfect for dipping into flowers

and extracting the sweet liquid.

 

Bats move from one plant to the next, cross-pollinating them so that they

produce seeds. Mexican long-nosed bats and the similar, lesser long-nosed bats

are the main pollinators of several agave species, including agave

tequilana—the tequila plant. The relationship between the plants and the

nectar bats is so critical that scientists claim the bats and agave co-evolved,

and that neither species could survive without the other.

 

Unlike insect-eating bats, nectar bats derive protein, vitamins and minerals

from pollen, which clings to their fur and which they later ingest during

grooming. Nectar bats have especially short ears, big eyes, and excellent

vision. In contrast to the fluttering of insect-catching bats, the flight of the

nectar bats is strong and direct, and like hummingbirds, they hover as they

drink.

 

As the flower stalks of the agaves die by late summer, the bats disappear,

following late-blooming agaves southward. By November, they are several hundred

miles into Mexico, where they nourish themselves with cacti and a variety of

flowers.

 

Bats In Trouble

During the daylight hours, nectar bats may inhabit cool caves, abandoned mines,

tunnels, and old buildings. Just a few sites provide the proper temperature and

humidity, and some are on private ranches where the bats are likely to be

mistaken for vampire bats and threats to the cattle. Thus, although the bats

have legal protections under the Mexican Endangered Species Act, they often get

caught up in destructive control practices.

 

Three of the 34 species of Central American nectar bats cross over the border

and spend their summers to its north. Lesser long-nosed bats and Mexican

long-tongued bats appear in Arizona. Like birds, moths and bees, they play a key

role in sustaining the plant life of the Sonoran Desert. Mexican long-nosed bats

appear in southern New Mexico and Texas, and are endangered in both states. For

many years they have chosen a cave in Big Bend National Park in Texas. There,

they are protected; but their yearly population fluctuates widely, from zero to

over 10,000 individuals.

 

An abandoned mine in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which had an estimated 10,000

long-nosed bats in 1938, had none in 1983. Another mine in the area had a

ceiling covered with newborn bats in 1967; only one bat was found there in 1983.

In 1988, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed both long-nosed bat species

as endangered.

 

Bats are highly sensitive to human disturbances in their caves, so maternity

colonies and hibernating bats are best avoided. Careful viewers wait outside

until the bats emerge for their evening meals. Conservation of the agave plants

is just as important. Agave plants are harvested for liquor or the production of

sweets just before they bloom, at which point they are removed from the bats’

food supply. This loss can be critical, as a single plant grows for one to three

decades and flowers only once.

 

Official recovery efforts for the nectar bats include planting ten of thousands

of agaves along roadways in Northern Mexico. People living in border areas can

support the bats by learning about the plants (note that some people are

allergic, and in the right gardens these plants can take over), by planting

agave plants, and letting them bloom. And as with so many endangered species,

avoiding the products of cattle ranching is essential too if bats—and agave

plants—are to flourish.

 

The Benefits of Agave

Agave nectar has a consistency close to honey, but thinner and easily dissolved,

something like a combination of maple syrup and honey. It’s high in fructose,

or fruit sugar, so it naturally absorbs into the blood sugar at a much slower

rate than other sweeteners, making it useful for many diabetics and people who

are hypoglycemic. As it is a natural, unprocessed product, it retains vitamins

and minerals that are absent from highly processed sweeteners. Lower in calories

than sugar, and very low on the glycemic index, agave nectar is will not raise

blood sugar levels as will other sweeteners, including honey and maple syrup.

 

Bill Dollinger, who directs the Washington, D.C. office of Friends of Animals,

relies on exercise and agave nectar to avoid diabetes medication. Bill regularly

enjoys agave nectar in smoothies and creative desserts such as homemade vegan

ice cream. Bill discovered agave nectar through the Dining with Friends

cookbook. “I’ve been hooked since the first time I tried it,†says Bill.

“It’s absolutely delicious.â€

 

Agave nectar can be used as a regular sweetener in baking, tea, coffee, or iced

drinks, or poured on pancakes and waffles. Normally, three quarters of a cup

will replace one cup of sugar in a recipe. As it is a liquid, you might need to

reduce the liquid content in the recipe as well.

 

Trying Agave Nectar: Key Lime Pie

Natural food shops and organic mail-order sites offer agave nectar, and it’s

perfect in Key Lime Pie, the deliciously cool summer treat. Here’s the recipe

from Dining With Friends: The Art of North American Vegan Cuisine, the first

cookbook from Friends of Animals. (You can order a copy of the cookbook by

calling us at 203.656.1522 or clicking its photo on our Internet site,

www.friendofanimals.org.)

 

This recipe makes a pie to serve 6 to 8 people

 

Ingredients

1 package (12.3 ounces) Mori-Nu Silken Lite Firm Tofu

8 ounces Tofutti “Better than Cream Cheeseâ€

½ cup fresh lime juice

2 teaspoons grated lime or lemon rind

2 packages Mori-Nu Mates Vanilla Pudding Mix

1 tablespoon agave nectar

One 9-inch Arrowhead Mills brand graham cracker pie shell

 

Preparation

Drain excess water from tofu. Blend Mori-Nu Silken Lite Firm Tofu with fresh

lime juice in a food processor until completely creamy and smooth. Add the rest

of the ingredients; blend again into a custard. Pour the custard into the pie

shell and chill it for 3 or more hours.

 

 

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