- Scientific Name
- Artibeus jamaicensis
- Family
- Phyllostomidae
- Region
- North America, USA, Florida, Puerto Rico
Pronunciation: ar-tib-ee-us ja-may-ken-sis
The Jamaican Fruit-eating Bat eats figs and many other tropical forest fruits, including the pulpy layer surrounding nuts, such as wild almonds. After carrying fruits away to eat them, the bat then drops the nuts, dispersing seeds for future trees. In addition to fruit, this species also eats pollen, nectar, and a few insects. Jamaican Fruit-eating Bats range from central Mexico to Paraguay and Brazil, and also live in the Bahamas, the Antilles, Trinidad, Tobago, and Key West, Florida.
They can be found in a variety of habitats from dry deciduous forests to tropical evergreen forests and cloud forests. Caves and hollow trees are their most common roosts, but sometimes they also create roosts by biting the midribs of large leaves until they hang down to form “tents” they settle into.