When we see native trees such as pohutukawa covered in flowers, we assume that the birds that flock to the trees during the daytime are doing all the work of pollinating the flowers.
But it turns out that it is the night shift that is really important – and this was only recently discovered on predator-free Te Hauturu-o-toi / Little Barrier Island.
David Pattemore, a pollination biologist at Plant and Food Research, was carrying out his PhD research, comparing Little Barrier Island to various mainland forest sites when he made the discovery that short-tailed bats are frequent visitors to forest flowers, and are highly effective pollinators – much more effective than birds, as it turns out.
Geckos were also pollinating flowers on rat-free islands, and David even recorded video footage on the mainland which showed that ship rats themselves were helping pollinate some species of flowers. He tells Alison Ballance about his research.
You can see video footage of bats pollinating pohutukawa flowers here.
