UA News

In recent years, nectar-feeding bats have begun visiting many hummingbird feeders throughout the greater Tucson area. This talk, by Ted Fleming, professor emeritus at the University of Miami and adjunct professor at The University of Arizona, will review the ecology of lesser long-nosed bats (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae), the principal midnight raider, and will describe a monitoring program that aims to understand its use of hummingbird feeders in an urban setting. Away from Tucson, this bat is a major pollinator of columnar cacti in the Sonoran Desert and of paniculate agaves in upland parts of southern Arizona. It is a federally endangered species, so that factors influencing its foraging behavior are of great interest. Learn how you can volunteer to help as a citizen-scientist in the feeder monitoring program.