Wildlife: Common Fruit Bats Are Most Active At Night But Mostly Eat Fruit Royalty-Free Stock Image

Common Fruit Bats are seen hanging upside down in the caves of Nooch Nach Cultunich Natural Park, in the entrance to La Cobanerita village, in San Benito, Peten. The Jamaican, common or Mexican fruit bat Artibeus jamaicensis is a fruit eating bat native to Mexico, through Central America to northwestern South America, as well as the Greater and many of the Lesser Antilles. It is also an uncommon resident of the Southern Bahamas. Populations east of the Andes in South America are now usually regarded a separate species, the flat-faced fruit-eating bat A. planirostris. The distinctive features of the Jamaican fruit bat which however are shared by some of its relatives include the absence of an external tail and a minimal, U-shaped interfemoral membrane. These are medium-sized bats. The Jamaican fruit bat is a frugivore. They eat a number of kinds of fruit but focus mostly on figs. The maximum longevity for the Jamaican fruit bat is nine years in the wild. Predators of fruits bats include owls, snakes, large opossums, and coati. Bats from various sites have been found with Histoplasma capsulatum. Some individual bats may have rabies. At dusk, males spend much time flying near the tree roosts displacing any intruders. Jamaican fruit bats are most active at midnight; following that, activity begins to die down.