Geographic Range
Great fruit-eating bats (
Artibeus lituratus
) range from Mexico to Southern Brazil.
- Biogeographic Regions
- neotropical
Habitat
Great fruit-eating bats are mostly tree dwelling, roosting in tree cavities or on
branches. Great fruit-eating bats have dispersed to urban areas, however, where they
may roost in buildings. Great fruit-eating bats will roost above ground from 2.7 to
28 m in tree canopies and also inhabit caves.
- Habitat Regions
- tropical
- terrestrial
- Terrestrial Biomes
- forest
- Other Habitat Features
- urban
- caves
Physical Description
Great fruit-eating bats belong to the family Phyllostomidae, a family of "leaf-nosed
bats", who have a "horn" projection from the nose. Great fruit-eating bats are one
of the largest fruit eating canopy bats, with a long wingspan used to travel long
distances in search of fruit among the canopies and trees.
Great fruit-eating bats have an average body mass of 65.9 g, body width of 4.5 mm,
and a single wing length of 23.0 mm. These bats have light to dark brown fur.
- Other Physical Features
- endothermic
- bilateral symmetry
Reproduction
Great fruit-eating bats are polygamous, with groups called harems consisting of one
male and several females.
- Mating System
- polygynous
More research needed to fully understand the reproductive behavior and patterns of
great fruit-eating bats.
Great fruit-eating bats vary reproductive patterns regionally. In northern neotropical
regions, reproductive patterns are monoestrous, while in southern regions seasonal
bimodal polyestry (two reproduction peaks annually during the wet season) is observed.
The first peak occurs between June to October and the second from October to March.
Some hypothesize that rainfall may also play a role in the reproductive patterns of
great fruit-eating bats.
- Key Reproductive Features
- iteroparous
- seasonal breeding
- gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
- sexual
- viviparous
Little information is available about the parental investment involved in caring for the young of great fruit-eating bats.
- Parental Investment
-
pre-fertilization
-
protecting
- female
-
protecting
-
pre-hatching/birth
-
provisioning
- female
-
provisioning
Lifespan/Longevity
Information is not yet available about the lifespan of great fruit-eating bats in the wild or in captivity.
Behavior
Great fruit-eating bats live in groups called harems made up of one male and 2 to
5 females. These bat harems may periodically change in numbers of individuals from
4 to 5 members up to 15 to 20 members. However, each harem has only one male. During
winters, most groups consist of 4 to 5 members as food availability may have the largest
influence on group size. Great-fruit eating bats typically roost in trees during the
day, but changes between roosting areas within a large area ranging from 0.5 to 2.5
ha.
Great fruit-eating bats will change feeding behavior according to moonlight. On nights
when full moons occur, the feeding and hovering times decrease. It is hypothesized
that great fruit-eating bats do this in order to avoid being spotted by predators
like owls.
Home Range
The Great fruit-eating bat roosting areas range from 0.5 to 2.5 ha.
Communication and Perception
Great fruit-eating bats, like many other bats, use echolocation for orientation and
locating food. Echolocation is the process of emitting sound waves and then analyzing
the returning echoes to determine food location and nearby obstacles. Great fruit-eating
bats are unique as they use scent in conjunction with echolocation to locate fruit.
Little information is known about the specific calls of the great fruit-eating bats,
but information about the calls of
New World leaf-nosed bats
, and relatives the,
Jamaican fruit-eating bats
is available.
Bats differ in intensity and frequency of their calls depending on their diet and
environment.
- Perception Channels
- tactile
- ultrasound
- echolocation
- chemical
Food Habits
Great fruit-eating bat are frugivores; their diet consist of mainly fruits but they
feed on nectar. Great fruit-eating bats demonstrates a group-foraging behavior, where
scouts are assigned to locate a tree with fruit and then "report" back to the harem.
The harem will later follow the scouts to the tree location for feeding. Great fruit-eating
bats remove fruit from trees and take it back to a feeding area. The bats will fly
around the fruit, take a bite, and perform a twisting movement to remove the fruit
from the tree. Great fruit-eating bats will feed on fruit from several trees, switching
from up to 2 to 5 fruit trees in one night.
- Primary Diet
- herbivore
- Plant Foods
- fruit
- nectar
Predation
Great fruit-eating bats are thought to have developed harems as a social structure
and to help protect against predation, with one male to every few females. Great fruit-eating
bats are known to fall prey to birds, such as
owls
.
- Anti-predator Adaptations
- cryptic
Ecosystem Roles
Great fruit-eating bats play a significant role in the ecosystem. Being a frugivore,
the bats disperse seeds from fruit in their fecal matter. However, more research
is needed to fully understand the plant species that make up the diet of great fruit-eating
bats, in order to pinpoint the specific species of seeds they disperse. Great fruit-eating
bats may also serve as a host for parasitic
bat flies
and
mites
.
- Ecosystem Impact
- disperses seeds
- bat flies ( Nycteribiidae )
- mites ( Tydeidae )
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Great fruit-eating bats are one of the fruit-eating bat species that plays a significant
role in the seed dispersal of plants in forests as well as in urban areas. Although
this economic benefit is difficult to quantify.
Economic Importance for Humans: Negative
Little information is available about any negative impacts of this species to humans.
Conservation Status
There are no known threats to the population of this species. Great fruit-eating bats are listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
Other Comments
In recent years, it has been found that Great fruit-eating bats sometimes experience
Alopecia, a syndrome that can cause hair loss. Populations of Great fruit-eating bats
in Tabasco, Mexico had a high prevalence of Alopecia. It is not yet known whether
diet or hormones are the cause for the syndrome, but more research is being conducted.
Additional Links
Contributors
Elizabeth Vega (author), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Christopher Yahnke (editor), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Alecia Stewart-Malone (editor), University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Laura Podzikowski (editor), Special Projects.
- Neotropical
-
living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- tropical
-
the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.
- terrestrial
-
Living on the ground.
- forest
-
forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.
- urban
-
living in cities and large towns, landscapes dominated by human structures and activity.
- polygynous
-
having more than one female as a mate at one time
- iteroparous
-
offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).
- seasonal breeding
-
breeding is confined to a particular season
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- viviparous
-
reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.
- arboreal
-
Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.
- diurnal
-
- active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
- nocturnal
-
active during the night
- motile
-
having the capacity to move from one place to another.
- social
-
associates with others of its species; forms social groups.
- acoustic
-
uses sound to communicate
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- ultrasound
-
uses sound above the range of human hearing for either navigation or communication or both
- echolocation
-
The process by which an animal locates itself with respect to other animals and objects by emitting sound waves and sensing the pattern of the reflected sound waves.
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- cryptic
-
having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect.
- herbivore
-
An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.
- frugivore
-
an animal that mainly eats fruit
- nectarivore
-
an animal that mainly eats nectar from flowers
- endothermic
-
animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
References
Bello-Gutierrez, J., G. Suzan, M. Hidalgo-Mihart, G. Salas. 2010. Alopecia in Bats from Tabasco, Mexico. Journal of Wildlife Diseases , Vol. 46: "1000-1004". Accessed August 22, 2011 at http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/3/1000 .
Brinklov, S., E. Kalko, A. Surlykke. 2009. Intense Echolocation Calls from Two 'Whispering' Bats, Artibeus jamaicensis and Macrophyllum macrophyllum (Phyllostomidae). The Journal of Experimental Biology , Vol.212 No.1: "11-20". Accessed August 24, 2011 at http://jeb.biologists.org/content/212/1/11.full.pdf+html .
Morrison, D. 1980. Foraging and Day-Roosting Dynamics of Canopy Fruit Bats in Panama. Journal of Mammology , Vol.61 No.1: "20-29". Accessed August 26, 2011 at http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.uwsp.edu/stable/pdfplus/1379953.pdf .
Oprea, M., D. Brito, P. Mendes, S. Lopes, R. Fonseca. 2007. A note on the diet and foraging behavior of Artibeus lituratus (Chiroptera,Phyllostomidae) in an urban park in southeastern Brazil. Biota Neotropica , Vol.7 No. 2: bn01407022007. Accessed August 22, 2011 at http://www.biotaneotropica.org.br/v7n2/en/fullpaper?bn01407022007+en .
Stockwell, E. 2001. Morphology and flight manoeuvrability in New World leaf-nosed bats (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Journal of Zoology , Vol.254 No.4: "505-514". Accessed August 25, 2011 at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.uwsp.edu/doi/10.1017/S0952836901001005/pdf .
Ter Hofstede, H., M. Fenton. 2005. Relationships between roost preferences, ecotoparasite density, and grooming behaviour of neotropical bats.. Journal of Zoology , Vol.266 No.4: "333-340". Accessed August 25, 2011 at http://www.uwo.ca/biology/Faculty/fenton/terHofstede%26Fenton2005.pdf .
Willig, M. 1985. Reproductive Patterns of Bats from Caatingas and Cerrado Biomes in Northeast Brazil. Journal of Mammology , Vol.66 No. 4: "668-681". Accessed August 22, 2011 at http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.uwsp.edu/stable/pdfplus/1380793.pdf?acceptTC=true .