Join visiting scientist Topa and assistant Stuart at Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Park for an enlightening adventure of the darkness. Nested in the forest park is a very special tree pollinated by a very special bat.
Why is pollination important? Why does a flower never open on its own and need a furry friend’s help? Why does Fiji hosts the most extraordinary and enigmatic pollination system… so enigmatic that it has never before been described? Are you ready to discover a truly awesome story about the strongest connection between a bat and a tree? Learn to identify Dillenia biflora (kuluva) and its buds, mature flowers, and unvisited flowers. If a fresh flower can be filmed, participants will assist with the set-up of the cameras. This highly technical operation involves carefully selected sticks and strings. And NO you will not see the bat.
Around 6:30 we relocate to Colo-i-Suva Rainforest Eco-Resort, where hosts, Val Salama and Brian Riches will provide refreshments. A video of the first ever record of a Blossom Bat visiting a Kuluva flower will be shown while celebrating the amazing Fijian story of a tree who selects its friends very carefully. A world’s first!
This is a unique activity. Payment MUST be made to secure a place.
Duration aprox: 3.5 hours. Easy walk.
More information on where to meet and what to bring will be sent to participants later.
- Cost $15 for NatureFiji member. $25 for non-member.
- Minimum Age: 10 years.
Become a member and enjoy the discounted rate.
Contact: [email protected] Tel: 310 0598
Please book and make payment early.
S. “Topa” Petit is Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of South Australia
S. “Topa” Petit
S. “Topa” Petit is Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of South Australia, and Associate Research Scientist with NatureFiji-MareqetiViti, the Caribbean Research and Management of Biodiversity (CARMABI), and the Curaҫao Footprint Foundation. Although she has researched many ecosystems and organisms, her topic of predilection is pollination by bats.
In Fiji, she has been involved in studying the role of bats in maintaining the health of the rainforest, and promoting bat and forest conservation. Her current activities include a large proportion of academic administration and teaching, but she tries to spend as much time as possible at the top of a slippery ladder resting on a slippery forest floor, embracing a slippery tree.
She believes ‘keeping contact is important in this activity”