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posted by martyb on Sunday January 15 2017, @11:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the I'll-drink-to-that dept.

Bats help to pollinate agave, which is a boon for tequila producers:

Once reduced to a population of just a few thousand individuals, the [lesser long-nosed bat] was placed on Mexico's endangered species list in 1994, and on the corresponding American list in 1998. Now, thanks to the efforts of conservationists, including tequila producers, the bat has recovered to an estimated number of 200,000 individuals, prompting the US Fish and Wildlife Service to propose removing it from the endangered species list in 2017.

[...] bat-friendly tequila refers to liquor farmed by companies that allow their blue agave crops to blossom naturally, instead of prematurely harvesting them before their flowers appear. The lesser long-nosed bat is an avid pollinator of night-blooming plants like agave, and colonies swarm out of their roosts at night to forage for nectar. When agaves are given the time to mature and bloom, bat populations noticeably proliferate, in turn making the crops healthier and more diverse.


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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday January 15 2017, @01:08PM

    by Bot (3902) on Sunday January 15 2017, @01:08PM (#454060) Journal

    Guys, can't we respect those creatures instead of defining them in a racist way? If only we decoded their ultrasonic cries of anger!

    I suggest to name them Differently Placed Size-Wise, Peculiarly Nosed, Sky Travelling Mice.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @01:13PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @01:13PM (#454065)

      Why so offended are you a bot or a bat or a bat bot or a bot bat?

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday January 15 2017, @03:45PM

        by Bot (3902) on Sunday January 15 2017, @03:45PM (#454097) Journal

        Both.

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        Account abandoned.
  • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Sunday January 15 2017, @09:09PM

    by rts008 (3001) on Sunday January 15 2017, @09:09PM (#454167)

    Save the bats, drink more tequila!

    • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday January 16 2017, @02:35AM

      by Bot (3902) on Monday January 16 2017, @02:35AM (#454233) Journal

      Variant -> Drink the tequila, eat the bats! (O.Osbourne)

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    • (Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Monday January 16 2017, @09:37PM

      by JeanCroix (573) on Monday January 16 2017, @09:37PM (#454534)
      I would, but I haven't been able to stand the taste of the stuff since the tequila incident of 1993.
  • (Score: 1) by butthurt on Monday January 16 2017, @02:26AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Monday January 16 2017, @02:26AM (#454231) Journal

    The juice of the also plants is concentrated and used as a sweetener. It's prized for

    [...] its very high fructose content (which is even more than high fructose corn syrup in its fructose content by weight)

    -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agave_nectar [wikipedia.org]

    That makes it sweeter (for the same energy) than sucrose.

    http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/the-truth-about-agave [webmd.com]