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Classification
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Common Name
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Diet
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Status
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Distribution
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| Family: Phyllostomidae |
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| Subfamily: Stenoderminae |
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| Artibeus jamaicensis parvipes |
Caribbean Fruit Bat |
Frugivore |
Common |
Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Turks & Caicos |
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Caribbean Fruit Bat (Artibeus jamaicensis parvipes) eats fruit and is found in Cuba, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. It roosts in dense foliage and the front sections of caves. This is our largest bat and feeds mainly on wild fruits and disburses seeds throughout the islands. They emerge several hours after sunset. Often piles of chewed Indian almond tree seeds or Christmas palm berries can be found under feeding roosts. This bat can cause staining on the sides of buildings from its droppings as it flies around, and can be a crop pest on thin-skinned fruits such as naseberries, mangoes and papayas. The CI Bat Conservation Project has information available to help solve these problems though there are no perfect answers to all problems .This bat is found in Crystal Cave in Old man Bay and is tolerant of minor disturbances but would probably abandon the cave if there were major changes in the number of visitors. Cave habitat preservation is a vital component of maintaining a healthy population of our ecologically important bats and two other bat species use this cave as well. (See entries under "Big-eared Bat" and "Brazilian Free-tailed Bat.
Common |
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Photo by: Robin Rice
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