From bat to bottle: How agave pollination helps put tequila on your table

What is the relationship between bats and a glass of tequila? A lot more than you think. Long-nosed bats are some of the lesser-known pollinators. These medium-sized bats reside in arid grasslands and dry tropical forests. In North America, female lesser long-nosed bats migrate from south-central Mexico up to the southwestern United States in the spring, according to Popular Science. They follow nectar corridors consisting of agave plants, which are used as a base for creating tequila. According to the United States Department of the Interior (DOI), the bat became coated with pollen after visiting a flowering agave plant. As it moves between different flowers, the bat helps pollinate plants that are vital to desert ecosystems while also supporting crops humans depend on. Its role in agave pollination even contributes to the production of tequila.

These bats pollinate the agave plants, which are then utilised to make tequila and mezcal. The tequila industry has expanded by 60 percent over the last decade, while the super-premium segment, with bottles priced at $30 or more, has grown by nearly 400 percent. This surge has created a greater demand for agave cultivation.

However, Micaela Jemison of Bat Conservation International points out that commercial agave farming often involves harvesting the plants’ stalks before they have a chance to reproduce. This deprives bats of the pollen they feed on. Rather than allowing bats to naturally transfer pollen between plants, many large tequila producers rely on cloned agave varieties, which do not reproduce through natural pollination.


Growing genetically identical plants is the obvious bet for big corporations, but cloned agave is vulnerable to fungus, which can destroy all crops. Bats can curb this problem by introducing genetic diversity. The Mexican long-tongued bat uses the tongues to dig out the nectar and get their heads covered in pollen. As they go from flower to flower, they are pollinating them each.