b'Amy Tuff Jazmin JohnsonParotia Bats as Pollinators - the importance of Bats and their role as pollinators within This bird of paradise has a rather unusual courtship display. The Western Parotia clears the forest floor toour ecosystemcreate the perfect dance floor before showing off his movesThis short animation depicts the importance of pollination, to the females. and how Bees have the day shift, Bats have the night The loss and degradation of habitat and local threats areshift. Many people are misinformed about the importance causing a slow decline in population size. The Parotia isof bats and since there has been a lot of work put into classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. saving the bees over recent years; comparing bees to bats, Jazmin thought, would show that bats are just as alt.illustrates@gmail.com important to save. Many bat populations are decreasing as a result of deforestation and climate change which has led to multiple breeds of bats being listed as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered. Without these bats our ecosystem would begin to fall apart and this could directly affect pollination of certain plants such as bananas, agave, mango and guava. Expressing this link between items we as humans enjoy and the bats that allow these items to exist should help to promote the importance of bats.The animation is simple and eye-catching and depicts the day and night time cycle with subtle changes such as brighter colours when the bees are in view, showing their attraction to brightly coloured flowers as opposed to the pale darker coloured flowers preferred by bats.'