This week, it seems there are a number of bats which have been found dead on Australian plantations after consuming large amounts of coffee.
It is pretty clear that bats love coffee. Not only have they been known to eat the fruit and enjoy the insects that grow in plantations, one woman even found a bat that crawled into her coffee filter through the night, giving her an extra jolt when she found it after drinking the pot of coffee-cooked bat juice.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service say it's possible the bats are using coffee as an alternative food source. It's the fist time growers have reported bats eating the fruit off coffee trees and spitting out the beans, causing tens of thousands of dollars in lost crops for farmers. The Australian Sub-Tropical Coffee Association president, Joss Webber, told the ABC that several growers have reported the problem in the last week and he has lost about $7,000 worth of product.
Because of the loss of product for farmers, officials are thinking about ways to stop these overbuzzed flyers from jittering away all their crops. They have been thinking of netting or using sound pellets, and have even been considered shooting them down.
The big problem with that is that the animal is protected, so the "culling" of their numbers is difficult. Also, scientists have found that bats significantly reduce the insect population from coffee plantations, much more than birds do (84% vs 58% in the rainy season. Bats have a much greater impact than was previously recognized for helping coffee crops, as insects can devastate agricultural crops, and can prevent herbivorous bugs from taking over plantations.
Source:http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201008/s2988429.htm
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26917664/
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